British navy sailor fires burst using gun mounting system ASP (Agile, Small-deflection, Precision) armed with a .50 heavy machine gun. (Picture source British Royal Navy)

If we don’t replace the .50 caliber machine gun and we don’t put it in a remote weapons station, we may still do something to improve its accuracy as a crew served weapon.

Navy Recognition reports the Brits have been testing a new mount.

Over a week of trials, the team put down nearly 5,000 .5 caliber rounds – 3,500 fired using the new mounting, 1,450 from a heavy machine-gun on a traditional ‘soft’ mounting to allow for comparisons. They conducted more than three dozen gunnery shoots in different scenarios and weather conditions to give both mountings a comprehensive workout.

Seven of Argyll’s ship’s companies were taught how to fire a .50 cal loaded onto the new mount. They found it easy to use – and their gunnery improved as the trials went on.

I would at least be curious about their test results.

I am resurfacing this old post from 2017, because our weapons effectiveness is still an issue. I also reformatted a couple of sentences to bold type face, so the points would be harder to miss. Hopefully the Mk38 Mod4 will have at least the 30mm gun, if they don’t decide to recycle 25mm guns, as seemed to have been the case when the Mod3 changes were minimized compared to the Mod2. We really need to upgrade the older mounts to a more effective weapon, otherwise we are planning to fail. Either replace the 25mm with a more effective gun or add APKWS or Hellfire/JAGM small missile systems. Better yet, do both.

This is old. It goes back to 1992, but if they knew the results here, it raises a question, why are we still equipping the Mk38s with 25mm guns instead of 30mm (or 35mm or 40mm) guns which also fit the same mount? The results are discussed beginning at time 8:00. The 30mm does nine times the damage to the hull and five times the damage inside the hull.

At the very least we need to make sure we have available rounds that do not detonate on impact. The 25mm rounds, exploding on impact, failed to even penetrate the 1/4 inch aluminum hull of the Mk3 target boat.

Thanks to Luke for bringing this to my attention.