Rheinmetall RMG 7.62

The Rheinmetall RMG 7.62 is a German medium machine gun that the arms maker Rheinmetall Defence has been developing for mounting on armoured vehicles. It is a development of the recoil-operated MG3 and keeps that gun's belt feed and a cyclic rate of about 800 rounds a minute, chambered for the 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge. Its distinguishing feature is a cluster of three barrels that take turns in the firing position, so that a barrel which has overheated rotates away and cools while the next one is used. This answers a problem of vehicle-mounted guns, where changing a hot barrel under fire is awkward. Despite its outward appearance it is not a rotary weapon like a minigun. The gun has been offered as coaxial armament on the Lance turrets of the Boxer reconnaissance vehicle and on the Lynx KF41, and has been fitted to the remote weapon station of the Panther KF51 tank, though production Lance turrets so far carry other machine guns.