M240

The M240 is a Light Machine Gun featured in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Singleplayer
The M240 is first seen used by Makarov's terrorists during the attack on Zakhaev International Airport. The purpose for using Western firearms is apparently to divert suspicion from the Ultranationalists to a western perpetrator, but strangely, it is seen being used by Ultranationalists in other missions as well. It is also used by Ranger LMG gunners with various attachments such as: Red Dot Sight, ACOG scope, or without attachments.

Special Ops
Juggernauts will always use this weapon in Special Ops, usually with a Red Dot Sight, but they may use other weapon attachments especially the ACOG sight. It also appears as a starting weapon for Armor Piercing.

Multiplayer
The M240 has mild recoil for a light machine gun, but enough to throw off aim at medium to long distances if spraying with extreme prejudice. Because of this, a Grip is recommended. Otherwise, the weapon is slightly unremarkable, with a slightly obstructive iron sight, decent reload time, low damage, and a high rate of fire. Scavenger is recommended as the weapon expends ammunition quickly. If used with both a Grip and Red Dot Sight, the M240 can be very effective at all ranges if burst firing is used effectively. Lack of dropoff means it is most effective at long range, where it will still down a player in 3 shots with Stopping Power, or 4 without in normal circumstances. Because of the lack of damage drop off or increase, using a silencer - with or without Stopping Power at close range is extremely ill-advised, as it still takes either 4 or 5 shots to kill, meaning the player will be overwhelmed by all the SMGs, most Assault Rifles, or even other LMGS. This problem is shared with the MG4.

The M240 has the lower damage of the LMGs, balanced with its extremely high rate of fire. The M240 excels greatly in Hardcore, where it delivers one-hit kills at any range at a very high rate of fire with some mild, easily controllable recoil. The high rate of fire and high capacity makes this weapon a premier choice for bullet penetration kills. The Silencer is not recommended for use due to a silencer glitch on the M240, MG4, and M9 allowing the player to still show up as a red dot on the enemy's map and it still suffers a damage decrease. The Holographic Sight is also a solution to the muzzle flash, because the sight is elevated the player will see a notably lower amount of flash.

The weapon's high fire rate can be quite useful. Stopping Power does not have a significant effect on the M240 due to the high fire rate, making other Tier 2 perks more viable options such as Hardline for more air support and Lightweight for running and gunning. It can help with defending flags in Domination or general objective based game types such as Headquarters and Demolition. The M240 can also reach its potential in tight, high traffic areas because as mentioned before the high fire rate can make the M240 quite useful as it can provide constant suppressing/covering fire. Thus, prolonged distances around maps is not a good idea as there are other weapons that fulfill the aforementioned task more efficiently. Sleight of Hand Pro is recommended due to the longer sight raise time. Combining that with Lightweight Pro and Steady Aim can make the M240 an excellent run and gun weapon due to the near instant sight raise, even from sprinting, and puts the mobility very slightly behind assault rifles and SMG sight raise time. It also performs quite well as an overwatch weapon with almost any optic (Except Thermal) plus a Grip with Bling, having low, mostly visual recoil that can down a target surprisingly fast. The reload time of this weapon is not as long as some of the other LMGs, and can be canceled quite early, and with Sleight of Hand, the add time is as short as an assault rifle at 2.6 seconds.

Weapon Attachments

 * Grip
 * Red Dot Sight
 * Silencer
 * ACOG Scope
 * FMJ
 * Holographic Sight
 * Heartbeat Sensor
 * Thermal Scope
 * Extended Mags

Trivia

 * On Infinity Ward's website, the M240 was voted the favorite light machine gun in Modern Warfare 2.
 * Like the MG4 (and many other weapons), the M240 has a higher rate of fire in multiplayer than it does in single player.
 * The M240 is one of the guns which has a great difference between the first-person firing sound and the third-person firing sound. Other weapons which share this trait are F2000, MP5, M16A4, AK-47, M14 EBR and M9.
 * In the Museum, the Juggernaut may drop an M240 with a Red Dot Sight and the original iron sights; the iron sights are overlooked and the player looks through the Red Dot Sight.
 * Occasionally, when picking up a dropped M240 in singleplayer, the pickup text will simply say 'M240' with no attachments mentioned. However, when picked up, it has a Holographic Sight as well as the original iron sights.
 * The Create-A-Class picture of the gun shows the ammo belt hanging off the side of the magazine.
 * While reloading an M240 with a Heartbeat Sensor, the player's character closes the sensor before the reload animation begins, and re-opens it when the reload is done.
 * The only level where the M240 is a starting weapon is "No Russian" (M240 and M4A1 Grenadier).
 * When fired with a silencer, it will still appear on the enemies radar, it shares this trait with the MG4 and M9.
 * The 3rd Person sound of the M240 from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the same as that of the mobile M249 in Call of Duty 4, but their 1st Person sounds are different.
 * The M240 appears to fire faster with a silencer but actually doesn't.
 * The M240 first appeared in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, mounted on top of War Pig, although unusable.