Lithuania Receives First FN MINIMI 7.62s
Back in March, Lithuania announced that it had signed a contract with FN Herstal to procure an unspecified number of FN Minimi 7.62 MK 3s through a contract is worth $34 million Euros or $35 million. The first of Lithuania’s new FN Minimi 7.62s has arrived according to a recent update on the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense’s social media.
FN @ TFB:
The contract for the machine guns was signed in February 2023 with the Lithuanian government announcing at the time that:
Light machine guns FN MINIMI 7.62 are more modern and lighter than the KSP-58, FN MAG, MG3 systems currently used in the Lithuanian army. After purchasing them, the soldiers of the Land Forces of the Lithuanian Army will become more mobile and will be able to perform their tasks better. In addition, this machine gun can be serviced by one soldier, instead of two soldiers who serviced the older model KSP-58 machine guns. Various optical devices can be attached to the MINIMI 7.62 machine guns, which increase accuracy and efficiency even in the dark.
The first batch of MINIMI 7.62s was anticipated to arrive before the end of 2023.
On 7 October, the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense shared the first photograph of the Lithuanian Army’s new machine gun. The post read [machine translated]:
The Belgian arms manufacturer FN “Herstal” S.A. manufactured light machine guns FN MINIMI 7.62 reached Lithuania.
These machine guns are more modern and lighter than those currently used in the Lithuanian army, with them the soldiers of the Lithuanian army will become even more mobile and will be able to perform tasks better.
Various optical devices can be attached to the MINIMI 7.62 machine guns, which increase accuracy and efficiency even in the dark.
Although Lithuania is buying this type of machine gun for the first time, they are widely used by NATO countries – it is the most popular machine gun of 7.62×51 mm caliber used by Western armies.
Managing Editor: TheFirearmBlog.com & Overt Defense.com. Matt is a British historian specialising in small arms development and military history. He has written several books and for a variety of publications in both the US and UK. Matt is also runs The Armourer's Bench, a video series on historically significant small arms. Here on TFB he covers product and current military small arms news. Reach Matt at: matt@thefirearmblog.com
More by Matthew Moss
![[NRAAM 2024] A Magnetic Red Dot Mount from High End Defense](https://cdn-fastly.thefirearmblog.com/media/2024/06/04/0643119/nraam-2024-a-magnetic-red-dot-mount-from-high-end-defense.jpg?size=350x220)
Comments
Join the conversation
Isnt it the Maximi?
I can see a problem with resupply when operating with another army that has minimi in 556 and someone calls back to get minimi ammo and gets the wrong cal. sent up.