POTD: The (almost) forgotten AR-10 LMG and its Ammo Backpack
Armalite and Artillerie Inrichtingen (AI) experimented with a number of different belt-fed machine guns / auto-rifle versions of the AR-10. The photo above and below are of different prototypes. In the below photo the rifle is fed from a 250 round belt fed from a backpack. This concept was invented decades before the ammunition belt backpack which was featured in the movie Aliens (1986).
None of the AR-10 LMG prototypes functioned well and it never went into production.
Thanks to Chris for sending in the photo.
I founded TFB in 2007 and over 10 years worked tirelessly, with the help of my team, to build it up into the largest gun blog online. I retired as Editor in Chief in 2017. During my decade at TFB I was fortunate to work with the most amazing talented writers and genuinely good people!
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They did make an M-16 belt fed MG to be used on tanks but it lost out to the M-240.
I recently saw a video of a belt fed AR-10 with a slide fire adaptation. The claim was that it could fire 600 rpm. Anyone try that? Any idea of what type of links would be used? M-60 links?