MG 51

The MG 51, short for Maschinengewehr 1951, is a 7.5 mm general-purpose machine gun made by the Swiss firm W+F of Bern. Around 1942 the Swiss Army opened a competition for one service machine gun to replace both the heavy MG 11 and the light Lmg 25, adopted in 1911 and 1925. Waffenfabrik Bern, SIG and Hispano-Suiza entered, and the Bern team based its work on the German MG 42 and its accessories. The final design appeared in 1950. It is a short-recoil, belt-fed, air-cooled gun that fires automatic only, and it swaps the MG 42 roller locking for flapper locking to cure short shots. Many parts are machined rather than stamped, which made it heavier, sturdier and dearer than its German model. It served as a medium machine gun on a tripod and as a light machine gun on a bipod, and since 2005 the lighter 5.56 mm FN Minimi has gradually replaced it.