Ranger Machine Gunner

A pair of soldiers with the 75th Ranger Regiment maintain security during Joint Warfighter Assessment in Germany.

The leftmost Ranger is armed with a M240 7.62x51mm belt-fed machine gun fitted with a ELCAN Armament Technology Optical Sight and PEQ-15 laser pointing device.

The Rangers employ the M240 via two-man machine gun teams. The regiment uses the M240B and the M240L variants of the machine gun. The M240 can be fired from a bipod as well as a fixed tripod.

The M240L is a lightweight version of the M240 medium machine gun, of particular use for airborne forces and special operations forces. Its use of titanium and polymer components reduces the M240L's weight down by 5.5lbs compared to the M240B