The Army Dumped the M60. Then It Ordered More.

In September 2024 the U.S. Army signed a contract for new M60 machine guns - almost thirty years after it threw the M60 out of its infantry. The Pig lost two head-to-head tests to a Belgian gun, and in one of them it missed the Army's own minimum by four rounds. Here's the whole story: Vietnam, the tank-gun shootout of 1975, the Marines' failed fix, the 1995 rematch the Army never published - and why the Army is now hunting for a replacement for the M240 too. More from the Society: The Army Stopped Buying Its New Rifle -    • The Army Stopped Buying Its New Rifle   CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 0:37 One gun for everything 1:55 Why soldiers called it the Pig 3:39 The test inside a tank 4:58 Four rounds short 6:37 The Marines try to fix the Pig 7:39 The rematch nobody released 9:09 The price of reliability 10:08 The Pig that wouldn't die 11:46 Now the Belgian gun is the old one 12:51 What killed the M60 Join the Society - new file every week. SOURCES https://archive.org/details/Machine_G... https://shephardmedia.com/news/landwa... https://shotbusiness.com/2026/05/news... https://soldiersystems.net/2014/03/11... https://tankandafvnews.com/tag/coax/ https://taskandpurpose.com/news/army-... https://twz.com/land/mysterious-m60-m... https://web.archive.org/web/201310292... https://www.globalsecurity.org/milita... https://www.guns.com/news/2024/09/24/... https://www.kyivpost.com/post/39952 https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/f... https://www.twz.com/land/m240-medium-... MEDIA Public-domain imagery: U.S. Department of Defense / DVIDS via Wikimedia Commons. Archive film: U.S. Army and National Archives (NARA) footage via Internet Archive. Voice-over is AI-generated (ElevenLabs). • 7th Marines machine gunner cleans his M-60.jpg - official USMC photo by Lance Corporal R. B. Sanville from the Jonathan F. Abel C (CC BY 2.0) • Destroyed Israeli M60A1 Tank Near Fayid Airport, West of the Suez Cana - Israel Press and Photo Agency (I.P.P.A.) photographer (CC BY 4.0) • MG 42 top view Wings over Wine Country 2007.JPG - BrokenSphere (CC BY 3.0) • Belgian Air Force F-16 (28819815140).jpg - Clemens Vasters from Viersen, Germany, Germany (CC BY 2.0) • FN MAG white background.jpg - FN Herstal (CC BY 2.0) #M60 #M240 #militaryhistory