Machine guns can be divided into three categories: light machine guns, individual-served machine guns of an intermediate cartridge that are usually magazine-fed; medium machine guns, belt-fed machine guns of a full-power caliber and a certain weight that can be operated by an individual but tend to work best with a crew; and heavy machine guns, machine guns that are too large and heavy to be carried and are thus mounted to something (like a tripod or military vehicle), and require a crew to operate. A general-purpose machine gun combines these categories under a single flexible machine gun platform, often one that is most suitable as a light or medium machine gun but fares well as a heavy machine gun. A closely related concept is the squad automatic weapon, a portable light machine gun or even a modified rifle that is designed and fielded to provide a squad with rapid direct fire.
Machine guns can be divided into three categories: light machine guns, individual-served machine guns of an intermediate cartridge that are usually magazine-fed; medium machine guns belt-fed machine guns of a full-power caliber and a certain weight that can be operated by an individual but tend to work best with a crew; and heavy machine guns, machine guns that are too large and heavy to be carried and are thus mounted to something (like a tripod or military vehicle) and require a crew to operate. A general-purpose machine gun combines these categories under a single flexible machine gun platform often one that is most suitable as a light or medium machine gun but fares well as a heavy machine gun. A closely related concept is the squad automatic weapon, a portable light machine gun or even a modified rifle that is designed and fielded to provide a squad with rapid direct fire