POTD: Blackhawk Door Gunner with the M240H Machine Gun

by Eric B

Published: May 12th, 2020

potd blackhawk door gunner with the m240h machine gun

Photo Of The Day is a bit unusual today as we’re looking at a Blackhawk Door Gunner on the ground. The photos are from the 12:th Combat Aviation Brigade and the location is the Grafenwoher Training Area in Bavaria, Germany.

I guess it is a lot cheaper to do any zeroing and basic training on the ground. Shooting from a helicopter is probably difficult enough, as there are so many factors to compensate for.

UH60 Blackhawk Door Gunners from the 1-214th General Support Aviation Battalion qualify on ground tables before taking off for aerial gunnery tables at a snowy range in Grafenwoher Training Area on Feb. 29.

I think these are M240H (M240E5) machine guns, as they are equipped with dual spade grips and thumb-activated trigger systems. They also have rail-equipped feed cover and an improved flash suppressor.

They are easy to convert back to infantry use on the ground, using an Egress kit that includes a bipod and conventional pistol grip trigger module.

If found a video from 2017 which explains more about the M240H and the qualification process.

The M240H entered service in 2004 on U.S. Army helicopters.

Photos courtesy of Alexander Klingelhöller.

#Blackhawk #M240H

Eric B

Ex-Arctic Ranger. Competitive practical shooter and hunter with a European focus. Always ready to increase my collection of modern semi-automatics, optics, thermals and suppressors. TCCC Certified. Occasionaly seen in a 6x6 Bug Out Vehicle, always with a big smile.

More by Eric B

Comments

Join the conversation

7 of 15 comments

Richtard on May 13, 2020

https://uploads.disquscdn.c... https://uploads.disquscdn.c... He's not zeroing the gun. He's not even using the sights. He's just function testing the system.
*edit* quoted from the article: ".... I guess it is a lot cheaper to do any zeroing and basic training on the ground..."

Like Reply
- See 2 previous
- Brett baker on May 13, 2020
  
  @Richtard I'm told you "just look over the sights and lead'em" when doorgunning.
  
  Like
- Major Tom on May 13, 2020
  
  @Brett baker And you load copious amounts of tracers to make that work.
  
  Like
- Major Tom on May 13, 2020
  
  @ I've known of times where crew chiefs loaded nothing but tracers. Also times where it was 1 tracer per 3 others as opposed to 1 tracer to per 5 others. Or even alternating.
  Tracers have different ballistics, you aim where the tracer goes the rest go elsewhere, more tracers = more hits. All tracers = consistent shooting particularly at long range when fired from helicopters.
  
  Like
Billrla on May 13, 2020

I didn't recognize the camo or the helmet. New?

Like Reply
- See 1 previous
- SGT Fish on May 13, 2020
  
  @billrla It's multicam. Just the material that the flight uniforms are printed on makes it much brighter than you're used to seeing.
  
  Like
- Kurt Akemann on May 16, 2020
  
  @SGT Fish Much better than that uniform form 2017, that's certain.
  
  Like

News

Articles/Features

Guns & Gear

Shows

TFB Top Products

POTD: Blackhawk Door Gunner with the M240H Machine Gun

You may also be interested in