The SIG MG 710-3 is a Swiss 7.62 mm general-purpose machine gun (GPMG) designed and manufactured by SIG - Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft (currently Swiss Arms AG). The weapon was developed as a commercial venture primarily for export, since the

Swiss Army The Swiss Armed Forces (german: Schweizer Armee, french: Armée suisse, it, Esercito svizzero, rm, Armada svizra; ) operates on land and in the air, serving as the primary armed forces of Switzerland. Under the country's militia system, re ...

had already adopted the 7.5 mm MG 51 GPMG (chambered for the 7.5×55mm Swiss Schmidt–Rubin

rifle A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves ( rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with ...

cartridge), produced by the federal arms factory W+F.

Development

Work on the SIG MG 710-3 machine gun (initially designated the Model 55, changed in 1957 to SIG MG 710) began in 1955 and its design was influenced by the

MG 45 MG, Mg, or mg and variants may refer to: Organizations * MG Cars, an automotive marque of the now defunct MG Car Company * MG Motor, a present-day car manufacturing company *MG JW Automobile, a Pakistani automobile manufacturer * Champion Air (IA ...

, a late World War II development of the German

MG 42 The MG 42 (shortened from German: ''Maschinengewehr 42'', or "machine gun 42") is a German recoil-operated air-cooled general-purpose machine gun used extensively by the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS during the second half of World War II. Enterin ...

machine gun. These efforts resulted in the SIG MG 710-1 (adapted to use the 6.5×55mm round) and the SIG MG 710-2 (with the

7.92×57mm Mauser The 7.92×57mm Mauser (designated as the 8mm Mauser or 8×57mm by the SAAMI and 8 × 57 IS by the C.I.P.) is a rimless bottlenecked rifle cartridge. The 7.92×57mm Mauser cartridge was adopted by the German Empire in 1903–1905, and was the ...

cartridge), while the prototype for the final production version which would become the SIG MG 710-3 (chambered in a standard NATO 7.62×51mm caliber) was completed by the mid-1960s. Currently the weapon is in use by the armed forces of

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

, Brunei, Chile,

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...

, and Liechtenstein.

Design details

The SIG MG 710-3 is an

automatic Automatic may refer to: Music Bands * Automatic (band), Australian rock band * Automatic (American band), American rock band * The Automatic, a Welsh alternative rock band Albums * ''Automatic'' (Jack Bruce album), a 1983 electronic rock ...

, air-cooled belt-fed weapon operated by roller- delayed blowback and fires from an

open bolt A firearm is said to fire from an open bolt if, when ready to fire, the bolt and working parts are held to the rear of the receiver, with no round in the chamber. When the trigger is actuated, the bolt travels forward, feeds a cartridge from t ...

. The machine gun's bolt differs from other contemporary designs employing the roller-delayed blowback method of operation (such as CETME and Heckler & Koch designed weapons), being a 3-piece design that consists of a bolt head with two locking rollers, a striker sleeve and the bolt carrier which is connected telescopically with the bolt head. When a round is chambered pressure from the return spring drives the bolt and carrier assembly forward; simultaneously both rollers engage camming surfaces which drive the rollers outward from their compressed travel position into recesses in the barrel extension. Upon firing, the bolt carrier and striker assembly recoil to the rear and the geometry of the fixed camming surfaces drives the rollers inward unlocking the bolt breech and increasing the speed at which the striker sleeve withdraws relative to the bolt. As the slower bolt continues rearward it impacts the returning striker sleeve (this impact decelerates the bolt). The bolt assembly also contains the spring extractor, while a lever case ejector is located at the base of the feed tray. Spent casings are ejected downward. The weapon has a striker firing mechanism, a trigger assembly for fully automatic only fire and a cross-bolt safety (the "safe" setting disables the bolt catch). The SIG MG 710-3 is fed from the left side by either NATO standard disintegrating M13 (United States) or continuous link German DM1 belt, but only after swapping several parts in the feed block. When used in a light machine gun role, the ammunition belt is stored in a sheet metal container that has a 50-round capacity and is attached to the left side of the receiver. The feeding mechanism resembles the one used in the MAG machine gun (a simplified version of the

's feed system) operated with a feed arm driven by the motion of the striker sleeve. The belt is fed in two stages during both the forward and rear movement of the bolt assembly. The quick-change barrel, ended with a slotted flash suppressor, has a fixed handle used to remove it. The machine gun uses three types of

barrel A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, ...

s: a light profile, heavy profile (in a heavy machine gun role), and special type (used for firing blank

ammunition Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other weap ...

). The firearm has a fixed

stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...

(metal or wood), detachable bipod and open-type sights (rear sight is a sliding tangent with settings from 100 to 1200 m with 100 m increments). Used as a static heavy machine gun the weapon is placed on a SIG L810 tripod. It is also adapted to use an optical sight (with 2.5× magnification) or a night vision device.

Users

* * * * *: Security Corps

References

External links

Bellum.nuModern Firearms

MilitaryImages.Net
{{Delayed Blowback Firearms 7.62×51mm NATO machine guns General-purpose machine guns Machine guns of Switzerland MG 42 derivatives Roller-delayed blowback firearms Military equipment introduced in the 1960s SIG Sauer machine guns

Development

Design details

Users

See also

References

Further reading

External links