M2 Browning - Deployment

Deployment

The M2 .50 Browning machine gun has been used for various roles:

• A medium infantry support weapon
• As an anti-aircraft (AA) gun in some ships; up to six M2 guns could be mounted on the same turret.
• As an anti-aircraft gun on the ground. The original water-cooled version of the M2 was used on a tall AA tripod or vehicle-mounted anti-aircraft weapon on a sturdy pedestal mount. In later variants, twin and quadruple M2HB Brownings were used, such as the M45 Quadmount used on the US M16 half-track carrier. Twin or quad-mount .50 M2 guns normally used alternating left-hand and right-hand feed.
• Primary or secondary weapon on an armored fighting vehicle.
• Primary or secondary weapon on a naval patrol boat.
• Spotting for the primary weapon on some armored fighting vehicles.
• Secondary weapon for anti-boat defense on large naval vessels (corvettes, frigates, destroyers, cruisers, etc.).
• Coaxial gun or independent mounting in some tanks.
• Fixed-mounted primary armament, with the AN/M2 light-barrel version only, in World War II-era U.S. aircraft such as the P-47 Thunderbolt, P-51 Mustang, and the Korean-era U.S. F-86 Sabre, sometimes synchronized to fire through the propeller arc in a twin mount atop the engine, as on the P-40B Tomahawk fighter.
• Turret-mount or flexible-mounted defensive armament, again only with the AN/M2 light-barrel version, in World War II-era bombers such as the B-17 Flying Fortress, and B-24 Liberator.