The invention described herein may be manufactured, used or licensed by or for U.S. Government purposes without the payment of royalties thereon. 
I. Field of Invention
This invention applies to MIL-STD-1913 mounting rails.  The present invents relates in particular to providing mounting rails on the forward portion of the 5.56 mm M249 Squad Automatic Weapon. 
II.  Background of the Invention. 
Weapons such as the M249, M240, M16A4 Rifle and M4 Carbine with integral mounting rails for fire control and other devices are proliferating.  MIL-STD-1913 mounting rails offer a versatile mounting interface for attaching a wide variety of weapon accessories. 
The popularity of the MIL-STD-1913 mounting rail has led to the need for more mounting rail space on each weapon to make room for more and more rail mounted accessories.  This lack of mounting surfaces has existed since the advent of MIL-STD-1913. 
The M249 as used by the U.S. Military currently has one MIL-STD-1913 mounting rail on top of the feed cover.  This single mounting rail provides less than seven (7) inches of mounting rail length, which limits the number of accessories which may be mounted directly to the weapon to typically just the optical sight or night sight.  If the machine gun optic was on the weapon, there is no mounting surfaces for an aiming light or combat I.D. system. 
A great and still unsatisfied need exists for an additional MIL-STD-1913 mounting rails on the M249 to allow mounting of a variety of weapons accessories used with the M249. 
It is therefore an object of the present invention to satisfy the long required need to provide an additional MIL-STD-1913 stable mounting rail for fire control and many other new devices. 
It is another object of this invention to capitalize on the existing knowledge of the MIL-STD-1913 mounting rail currently employed in the field. 
Yet another object is to provide three or more rails for multiple mounting devices to the M249.  The forward rails provide multiple mounting surfaces for accessories such as laser pointers combat I.D. at the same time. 
The aforesaid objectives can be achieved individually and in combination and it is intended that the invention be construed as requiring that two or more of said objects be combined. 
It has now been discovered that the above and other objects of the present invention may be accomplished in the following manner. 
Specifically in accordance with the present invention, the above objects are accomplished by providing three additional mounting rails attached to the forward receiver of the M249 with four fixed dowels and two screws.  These three rails provide for MIL-STD-1913 mounting rails on the left, right, and underneath the M249 barrel which allow for various accessories to be attached.  The bottom rail has an opening which the bipod is retained in the stowed position.