The
General Purpose Machine Gun (abbreviated GPMG) as used by the
British Army, is known as the L7 series. It is based on the
Belgien FN MAG (
Fabrique National[?] Mitrailleur a Gaz) machine gun. It is chambered to fire the larger, standard
NATO calibre of
7.62mm caliber NATO round. The gun has a weight of about 10.5kg and has a cyclic rate of fire of 850 rounds per minute. The breach mechanism is very similar to the
Browning Automatic Rifle designed during
WW1.