M249 SAW

The M249, officially the Squad Automatic Weapon or SAW, is an American light machine gun adopted by the United States military in 1984, a licensed and modified version of the Belgian FN Minimi, chambered in 5.56x45mm and capable of firing either from a disintegrating belt or, in a pinch, from standard M16-pattern box magazines. Issued at the squad level, typically one or two per infantry squad, the M249 was intended to give small units sustained automatic suppressive fire without relying on a separate, heavier belt-fed machine gun crew, letting ordinary riflemen's ammunition and the SAW gunner's belts remain interchangeable in the field. The weapon has seen continuous American combat use from the 1989 invasion of Panama through the Gulf War, Iraq, Afghanistan and other deployments since, and though the United States Army began fielding a newer, lighter next-generation squad weapon in the 2020s, the M249 remains widely issued across the American military and many allied forces.