General-purpose machine gun

The general-purpose machine gun (GPMG) as used by the British Army, is known as the L7 series. It is based on the Belgian 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 breech mechanism is very similar to the Browning automatic rifle designed during World War I.