What is this weapon? - Iraq
 

This is from an Iraq story. The caption was something to the effect of "Security forces stand guard..."

http://img114.imageshack.us/img114/6803/iraq3gy.jpg

I looked at the weapon and thought it must be support stuff and the guy is on his way somewhere. Surely he couldn't be firing the thing from his hip. Then I caught the guy back left with what appears to be the same weapon. The ammo box looks huge. Barrel looks narrow but extended, with a launch tube or flashlight beneath?

What are these things?

It looks like the FN M249 SAW.

http://www.world.guns.ru/machine/mg17-e.htm

looks to me more like the Kalashnikov PK
http://www.world.guns.ru/machine/mg07-e.htm

The stock looks like the M249 SAW but the rest looks like the PK. That "flashlight" seems to be a bipod. (I'd wondered why it looked "bent.") Mean looking thing, either way. Guess they're similar in heft to a Browning but I wouldn't have the constitution to haul either around for long. (7.1Kg & 9Kg respectively)

That's definately not a SAW, nor an M240 or an M60, so it has to be foreign. I think Gitmo nailed it.

I was wondering where I left that....

It's not the SAW. It's the Kalishnikov.

Definitely a PK-class Squad Support weapon. Russian design and ( mostly ) manufacture, chambered in 7.62x54R, which is ballistically identical to our 30-06. A truly nasty piece of work, if somewhat heavier than its' NATO counterparts due to the more powerful round.

yeah, its a PK

http://www.sovietarmy.com/small_arms/pk_icon.jpg

Not to be too much of a nerd, but the original photo is a PKM (Pulemyot Kalashnikova Modernizirovanniy). Note the lighter, unfluted barrel behind the gas block. For some reason the Iraqis insist on calling them PKCs though. Maybe Arabic for "modernized" translates with a "C" sound?

Just as a note: it fires extremely well from the hip. I would prefer one to an M240B any day.