FN Minimi
In the 1970s the United States began realizing that they might have to fight a conflict in the deserts and mountains of the Middle East or Near East rather than the jungles of Asia or forests of Europe and Eurasia. The "Squad Automatic Weapon" program was designed to create an intermediate weapon between the M16 rifle and M60 machine gun. It would have to fire tracer ammunition out to a visible range of 800 meters or more, be capable of accurate high-volume sustained fire, and be lighter and more reliable than the M60. Initially the contenders were built around a new intermediate cartridge, but the problems with approval for a new third American-backed standard NATO cartridge forced its abandonment. The program then selected between the control group weapons: the FN Minimi (XM249) and Heckler &amp; Koch HK 23 (XM262) chambered for the improved 5.56mm SS109 round. The FN Minimi was adopted as the M249 because it could optionally fire from magazines from an integral magazine port rather than requiring an exchange of parts in the field like the HK23.