History GunsOfFiction / MachineGuns

* One briefly appears during the Gun Gale Online segment at the beginning of Alicization arc of ''Literature/SwordArtOnline'' anime adaptation, manned by ''[[TokenMiniMoe Silica]]'' of all people.

The MG 3 would go on to serve as the main machine gun for the West German military for many years, as both an infantry and vehicle-mounted weapon, the latter role in which it continues service today; for other roles, due to a lack in leftover production tooling to keep making them, they were replaced starting in 2015 with Heckler & Koch's 5.56mm [=MG4=] for infantry use and its 7.62mm counterpart, the [=MG5=], for most other roles. The weapon also saw wide use overseas, being license-produced by Pakistan, Sudan, Iran, Italy,[[note]]who later attempted to develop a 5.56mm NATO conversion kit, to try to avoid adopting a new infantry machine gun when NATO standardized on that round; they relented due to the converted weapon weighing just as much as the unconverted version, which when unloaded was more than a ''fully loaded'' Minimi[[/note]] Spain, Greece, and Turkey. In TheNewTens, Rheinmetall has worked on conversion kits and new variants: the MG 3 KWS ("Kampfwertsteigerung", for "combat improvements") fits the weapon with rails, a new adjustable stock, and a new carry handle that can also fold down to act as a foregrip, designed to keep the weapon in service while the [=MG5=] was in the process of replacing it; while the [=MG14z=] takes the basic MG 3 receiver and fits it with two barrels, to enhance the firepower of other armies that still use the MG 3 or other MG 42 derivatives and aren't looking to replace it outright.

The basic [=HK21=] is chambered in 7.62x51mm NATO and designed to feed via belted ammo, though swapping out the barrel, bolt, and ammo feed allows it to feed from box magazines and be chambered in other calibers, including 5.56x45mm and, supposedly, 7.62x39mm Soviet. Later updates include the A1 version (which shifted the bipod to the front of the barrel shroud, added a carrying handle, and replaced the standard G3 stock with a slightly larger hooked stock) and then the Export version later in the '80s (which lengthened the barrel shroud, added a burst-fire mode, and fitted a new bipod with three-position height adjustment). It also became the basis for an entire family of G3-derived machine guns, such as the [=HK11=] (which is designed primarily for use with detachable magazines rather than belt feeding; the Bundeswehr uses a version with the ability to take scopes, designated the G8, with different barrels provided for the roles of both automatic rifle and designated marksman's rifle), and with the development of the Export models, the [=HK13=] and [=HK23=], versions of respectively the 11 and 21 in 5.56x45mm NATO. The [=HK13=] and 23 also served as the basis for respectively the [=GR6=] automatic rifle and [=GR9=] light machine gun, "sanitized" (i.e. having no serial numbers or identifying marks) weapons meant for special forces use, which came with integrated optics rather than ironsights and pre-applied woodland ([=GR6C and GR9C=]) or desert ([=GR6S and GR9S=]) camouflage finishes. A .50 BMG version, the [=HK25=], was also considered but never went into production. A gunsmithing operation in Illinois also created the incredibly rare "[=HK51B=]", essentially an [=HK21=] cut down to the size of the [=MP5=] submachine gun.

The Ruchnoy Pulemyot Degtyaryova (Degtyaryov hand-held machine gun), or RPD is the world's first purposely-designed SAW, or Squad Automatic Weapon. It fires an intermediate caliber 7.62x39mm round, the same round fired by the SKS, AK-47, AKM and many other weapons. Developed near the end of World War II by Vasily Degtyaryov, the RPD was accepted into Soviet service in 1944 and saw limited use in the last days of WWII. The RPD was replaced by AK-pattern weapons in the 1960s, though it has gone on to serve with distinction throughout the world, prominently seeing action in Korea and Vietnam. Many still serve in remote areas without access to better machine guns, a testament to its service durability. Recognized by its wooden stock components, bipod, and belt-fed receiver (which also can support the cylindrical belt-box), the RPD seems to have no retirement date planned anytime soon (and in fact, there are semiautomatic civilian versions made by DS Arms, with shortened barrels, making them legal-to-own belt-fed carbines). A Red Army user's manual can be found [[https://arsenal-info.ru/b/book/3213146621/11 here.]]

The Ultimax has five variants: the pre-production Mk.1, the fixed-barrel Mk.2, the Mk.3 which returns the changeable barrel and comes in standard and paratrooper, the Mk.4 with a new fire selector module that competed in the [[SemperFi USMC]] IAR trials (unfortunately, it lost to the M27 IAR, an LMG variant of the [=HK416=]) and the Mk.5, which can load from STANAG magazines.

* In the Singaporean-Malaysian film, ''Film/AhBoysToMen'', the Ultimax Mk.2 are used by SAW gunners of the [[UsefulNotes/SingaporeansWithStealthFrigates Singapore]] [[BackedByThePentagon Army]] against OPFOR infantry in the ActionPrologue.

The MG 42 was the basis of some of Germany's later 7.62x51mm NATO machine guns following the war; alongside the MG 3 below there were also purpose-built MG 1s for testing various upgrades, and the [=MG2=] made by simply converting existing '42s to the new ammo. These three guns are so similar (and externally almost identical) to the MG 42 that they have many interchangeable parts. Along with the FG 42, it was also the basis of the American M60. The US also attempted to make a .30-06 version of the MG 42 for testing, the T24, but since the two prototypes were a mishmash of newly-manufactured parts attached to original German MG 42 parts - particularly the receivers, which could only be modified so much to fit the slightly longer round - [[ReliablyUnreliableGuns reliability was shoddy at best]]; while they weren't ''quite'' as bad as some rumors claim (that the designers completely failed to account for the differently-sized rounds and made a gun which physically could not cycle the longer .30-06), they were still pretty bad, with a 10,000-round torture test seeing the worse of the two prototypes suffer 51 stoppages in only 1,500 rounds.

The [=MG4=] is a belt-fed 5.56x45mm light machine gun designed by Heckler & Koch, developed in the 1990s and first entering service in 2005. Essentially a German counterpart to the FN Minimi, it is intended to replace the MG 3 as a squad support weapon and compliment it in other roles (the reason for the MG 3 being phased out now is a big lack of production tooling). The weapon is in use with the German, Spanish, Portuguese, Albanian, Brazilian and Saudi Arabian militaries, as well as Estonian, Turkish and Malaysian special forces. It is also the basis for the [=MG5=], a similar weapon upscaled to take 7.62x51mm, which is being issued to replace the MG 3 in those roles the [=MG4=] hasn't already done so. The [=MG5=] is visually nearly identical to the [=MG4=] but shares very few parts owing to the different caliber.\\\

The MG 3 would go on to serve as the main machine gun for the West German military for many years, as both an infantry and vehicle-mounted weapon, the latter role in which it continues service today. The weapon also saw wide use overseas, being license-produced by Pakistan, Sudan, Iran, Italy,[[note]]who later attempted to develop a 5.56mm NATO conversion kit, to try to avoid adopting a new infantry machine gun when NATO standardized on that round; they relented due to the converted weapon weighing just as much as the unconverted version, which when unloaded was more than a ''fully loaded'' Minimi[[/note]] Spain, Greece, and Turkey. In TheNewTens, Rheinmetall has worked on conversion kits and new variants: the MG 3 KWS ("Kampfwertsteigerung", for "combat improvements") fits the weapon with rails, a new adjustable stock, and a new carry handle that can also fold down to act as a foregrip, designed to keep the weapon in service while the [=MG5=] was in the process of replacing it; while the [=MG14z=] takes the basic MG 3 receiver and fits it with two barrels, to enhance the firepower of other armies that still use the MG 3 or other MG 42 derivatives and aren't looking to replace it outright.

* The villainous drug dealer Kanryuu Takeda from ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'' bought the Cranked version of the Gatling gun from the black market and puts it in deadly effect after the duel between Kenshin and Aoshi had just ended [[spoiler: as Aoshi's fellow Oniwabanshu (Beshimi, Hyotoko, Shikiho and Hannya) [[HeroicSacrifice gave their lves to protect Aoshi from the deadly weapon]] and bought Kenshin some time to approach Kanryuu.]] The conclusion comes with slight differences: In the anime, one of Beshimi's tourniquette darts plugs into the ammo belt thus jamming the weapon while in the manga Kanryuu just ran out of bullets. [[KickTheSonOfABitch Kenshin then gives him his just desserts without killing him.]]