USMC M249 gunner

USMC

night vision

Name
M249 SAW	36	2	4

While changes in the 2010s led to a sunsetting of the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon in favor of the M27 Individual Automatic Rifle for many ground combat units, the automatic rifleman still forms a key part of Marine doctrine. Whether an M249 SAW gunner from a rear-echelon unit or an IAR-bearing rifleman loaded down with extra magazines, the automatic rifleman is usually found in every fireteam of four.

The M249 is typically attended by an assistant gunner with a spare barrel and extra ammunition, although for the purposes of Down Range, the assistant gunner will usually serve as an additional rifleman.

Players who wish to represent the joys and despairs of machine gunnery more accurately may house-rule that the M249 gunner, and his brethren with heavier automatic weapons, will require a barrel change/reload action from an adjacent assistant gunner with every critical failure of an attack.

This icon is used to denote this unit in order of battle diagrams.

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