M240

The FN M240B is a medium machine gun featured in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. It is a belt-fed, gas-operated medium machine gun and the US designation for the Belgian FN MAG 58. The main differences between the two is the addition of a Picatinny rail on top, a new stock, a heat shield over the barrel, and a hydraulic buffer similar to that used in the M60. The United States military has used it since the mid 1980's, replacing the M60, with infantry using the M240B variant. However, other variants are used by ground vehicles, watercraft, and aircraft alike, primarily the M240G. The M240 is praised for its reliability, even though it is not the lightest medium machine gun in service. The M240 is currently manufactured by the American division of the Belgian company FN Herstal. It is currently supplemented in the US military by the M240's "younger brother" the M249 SAW. All variants of the M240 series use disintegrating ammo belts, able to fire most types of NATO 7.62mm ammunition.The FN MAG family all share basic internal parts that are interchangeable.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
The M240 is first seen used by Makarov's terrorists in the airport in No Russian. The purpose for using Western firearms is to divert suspicion from the Ultranationalists and to a western perpetrator, but strangely, it is seen being used by Ultranationalists in other missions as well. Juggernauts will always use this weapon in Special Ops. In addition, the empty shell casings are ejected from the bottom of the weapon, not from the side, which is where the disintegrating links are ejected. The weapon is primarily used in a fixed position through a tripod, bipod, or swivel mount as seen on HMMWV's (Humvees).

The M240 has mild recoil for a medium machine gun, but enough to throw off aim at middle to long distances. Because of this, a Grip is recommended. Otherwise, the weapon is somewhat unremarkable, with a slightly obstructive yet open iron sight, decent but not obscene reload time and decent but not overpowered damage and rate of fire. The belt size is on the larger side. Scavenger is recommended as the gun burns through ammo pretty fast.

The M240 has the fourth highest damage of all LMG's mainly due to its extremely high rate of fire, some records have it that the M240 ingame can fire close to 1000 RPM.

The M240 excels at hardcore where it delivers one-hit kills at a very high rate of fire with decent recoil.

Weapon Attachments

 * Grip (Marksman I)
 * Red Dot Sight (Marksman II)
 * EOTech Holographic Weapon Sight (60 kills while aiming down the Red Dot Sight)
 * Silencer (Marksman III)
 * Heartbeat Sensor (15 kills with the silencer attached)
 * ACOG Scope (Marksman IV)
 * Thermal Scope (20 kills while aiming down the ACOG scope)
 * FMJ (Full Metal Jacket) (Marksman V)
 * Extended Mags (40 kills with Bullet Penetration while using FMJ)

Trivia

 * On Infinity Ward's website the M240 was voted the favorite light machine gun in Modern Warfare 2.


 * The M240 in game is very underpowered. It is chambered for the 7.62x51mm round, which is the same round fired by the M14 EBR, SCAR-H or FN FAL. So the M240 should have similar stopping power and should work similarly to M60E4 from Call of Duty 4, though it doesn't. This was probably done for balancing reasons, which is strange, as so far there is no LMG that have really high damage and low rate of fire in Modern Warfare 2, though this would be inaccurate as well, as one some gas settings, a clean M240G's fire rate can break 1,000 RPM.


 * M240's mechanism was based on the B.A.R, the very weapon the M60 intended to and replaced in late 1950s.


 * The FN MAG (predecessor to the M240) was actually supposed to be the winner in the GPMG contest against the M60, before the Secretary of Defense at the time, Robert McNamara decided to adopt the M60 for saving the U.S Ordanance from bankruptcy.


 * In reality, although the M240 is much more reliable than the M60, it wasn't liked for it's heavy weight and slightly inferior ergonomics on the butt and slightly worse recoil control. In fact, the M60 is much more comfortable to fire from the shoulder due to its better ergonomics and recoil control. But as previously mentioned, it's also quite heavy and was notoriously known for its unfamiliar handling at the time and tends to malfunction in the middle of battle.


 * Some players have asked why the M240 and its "younger brother", the M249 SAW, look very different. They don't actually, except for a few aesthetic differences. As mentioned above, the M249 is held against the shoulder, and the M240 is literally fired from the hip, thus giving a different angle. The M240 also uses a 7.62mm round wile the SAW uses a 5.56mm round. The M240 is also 8 inches longer than the M249, and possesses a bulkier receiver and different stock design than the M249.


 * While using the Heartbeat Sensor, the player closes the Heartbeat Sensor while reloading, this is the same with the RPD.


 * Oddly, the weapon is fired from the shoulder and whilst standing, but is in reality 49" long, making this very difficult to do.


 * The M240 makes two very distinctive third-person noises, depending on the angle/distance of the gun from the player. One of these noises (the more common one) is the same distinctive sound of the M249 SAW.


 * In real life this weapon is operated by a 2-3 man crew; one gunner, a team leader who designates targets and feeds the ammo, and another soldier who carries the spare barrel and ammunition. In an HMMWV, it is serviced by a single operator, with a passenger passing ammo up as it is needed.


 * Although the M240 is more reliable and more accurate than the M60, special forces like SEALs use modified M60's because the M240 is 8 pounds heavier and more difficult to fire from the offhand.


 * The M240 is commonly mounted on vehicles like the HMMWV. A bare bones version is also used as the coaxial machine gun on the M1 Abrams tank as is fired by the gunner, one is also mounted on top for the loader to fire, and the tank commander has a .50 cal.


 * The M240 has the same reloading action as the Russian RPD, though a bit sped up, as it reloads about 2 seconds faster than the RPD.


 * Ironically, the only mounted machine gun in game is M249 SAW which is lighter and used more by squads as support weapon than heavier and bulkier M240B firing heavier ammo and being longer