The FN Minimi was a combination 'belt fed'/magazine fed' light machine gun, designed to serve in the role of "Squad Automatic Weapon". The SAW was a mobile suppressive fire platform that was light weight and single man transportable - much more so than the venerable M60 (which was always supposed to be a General Purpose Machine Gun, i.e. a crew served weapon). The U.S. Military adopted the first models of the FN Minimi in the 1980s directly as the XM249 or later as the M249 (with some slight design changes in the official U.S. Adopted version. Later versions of the gun, reflected upgrades and design changes that were requested by the U.S. Military.
On a historical note: in the first months of the First Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm 1990), there were not enough M249s to supply the massive troop buildup in the Middle East, so the U.S. Army bought outright a number of unaltered FN Minimis directly from FN, to supplement the weapons. So it is not inaccurate to see first pattern FN Minimis in the hands of U.S. Soldiers who are supposedly issued M249 SAWs since the Army mixed the two versions together until the Late 1990s.
The FN Minimi and variants are used by the following actors in the following movies, television series, video games, and anime:
Error creating thumbnail: File missingM249-E1 SAW with 200-round ammo drum - First major upgrade of the SAW officially adopted by the U.S. Military (this is a real blank adapted movie gun) - 5.56x45mmError creating thumbnail: File missingM249-E2 SAW - upgraded M249 with heat shield and full synthetic Stock - 5.56x45mm with 200 round ammo drum.Error creating thumbnail: File missingM249 SAW 5.56x45mm paratrooper version with 200 round ammo drumError creating thumbnail: File missingM249 Paratrooper - a real blank adapted movie gun with bipod folded and a picatinny rail on the top of the receiver - 5.56x45mm
The C9 is a variant of the Minimi used by the Canadian Armed Forces, identifiable by the open front sight as opposed to the hooded front sights on other Minimi variants. The upgraded version, the C9A1, features an ELCAN scope mounted on the feed tray cover and an optional vertical grip that mounts to the stock for added stability during prone firing.
