AN/M2 & M3 Brownings - The Devastating .50 Cal Aircraft Machine Guns

As much as it pains me to admit it, US air power during World War 2 was just in another league in both quality and quantity; and there was scarcely a weapon more central to their airborne doctrine than the fearsome .50 calibre AN/M2. Compared to the standard M2, the AN/M2 had nearly double the fire rate; and when upwards of 6 were strapped to both fighters and bombers, it's undeniable that the fast firing .50 cal made an intimidating impression. This devastating firearm was a core part of the original M2 program and made up one of the initial 3 variants of the venerable Browning design, but its path diverged during the war, resulting in an even more daunting and faster firing successor in the AN/M3. Despite the weapon being inescapable for America’s enemies over the course of the 1940s and 50s, like the original M2 itself, these potent aircraft machine guns quickly fell into obsolescence for their intended purpose, but somehow they remain in use to this very day. So why was the .50 cal mounted on aircraft in the first place? How did the weapon perform in combat? And how has its utility evolved over the last 80 years? Sources Chinn, George M. The Machine Gun: History, Evolution, and Development of Manual, Automatic, and Airborne Repeating Weapons. Vol. 1. Washington, D.C.: Superintendent of Documents U. S. Government Printing Office, 1951. Gorenstein, Nathan. The Guns of John Moses Browning: The Remarkable Story of the Inventor Whose Firearms Changed the World. New York, NY: Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc, 2021. Rottman, Gordon L. Browning .50-Caliber Machine Guns. Oxford: Osprey Pub, 2010. https://www.americanrifleman.org/cont... https://nuclearcompanion.com/from-glo... Chapters 00:00 Pre-intro 00:12 Intro 01:45 The Birth of the AN/M2 05:27 Aboard American Fighters 08:50 Defending Bombers 12:12 Enter the AN/M3 14:20 A Short-lived Successor 17:12 Into the Modern Era 18:47 Conclusions 20:20 Outro