U.S. Army Soldiers received hands-on experience with foreign multiple weapon systems, including a legendary Soviet-designed machine gun during weapons training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
The Soldiers were trained to employ, maintain and engage targets with select foreign pistols, rifles, shotguns, submachine and machine guns, grenade launchers and mortars and in the utilization of observed fire procedures.
The Students assigned to the U. S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School is in the Special Forces Weapons Sergeant Course also have been trained with an SG-43 Goryunov machine.
The SG-43 Goryunov was a Soviet medium machine gun that was introduced during the Second World War. It was chambered for the 7.62×54mmR cartridge, and was introduced in 1943 as a replacement for the older M1910 Maxim machine guns. It was mounted on wheeled mounts, tripods and armored vehicles.
After the end of World War II, the SG-43 was improved and renamed SGM (“M” for modernized); dust covers and a new barrel lock were fitted, and a splined barrel was fitted to improve cooling. A coaxially-mounted stockless electric solenoid-fired variant was developed under the designation SGMT (the “T” standing for Tankovy, or “Tank”). The SG-43M and SGMB are versions modified with dust covers and used mostly on armoured personnel carriers.
In addition to World War II, SG-43 saw service in the Korean War with the Communist North Korean and Chinese forces. In Soviet service, the Goryunov, together with the RP-46, was replaced in the 1960s by the PK machine gun due to the switch in Soviet tactical doctrine to the general-purpose machine gun concept, rendering the gun effectively obsolete.
