M37 .30 Caliber Machine Gun
The M37 .30 caliber machine gun is an automatic, recoil-operated, link-belt fed, air-cooled weapon. The gun is designed for fixed or flexible use, though its primary function is as a fixed tank machine gun. Depending on the positioning of some of the component parts, ammunition can be fed from either the left or the right side of the gun. This gives the weapon more flexibility in tank mountings than either the M1919A4E1 or M1919A5 machine guns. A metallic link belt of the disintegrating type is used in feeding. In the flexible role, the M37 machine gun can be used on either the M1917A1 or M74 tripods. The M37 had a rate of fire of 400-550 rounds per minute.
Development of a weapon to replace the M1919A4E1 and M1919A5 fixed machine guns began following World War II. In 1955, one of these prototypes, the T153, was type standardized as the M37. Developed and produced in part at Rock Island Arsenal, the M37 became the standard fixed machine gun in the period immediately after the Second World War. It could also be used, if required, as flexible machine gun on tripods and other types of mounts. A variant, capable of being fired for a solenoid, designated as the M37C, was also developed for use in a number of helicopter armament subsystems.
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