ATL-518

The **ATL-518** is the PROJECT's standard general purpose machine gun designed by Altima Dynamics.

## Design

The ATL-518 is an automatic weapon that externally resembles the 7.92×57mm Klauser Maschinengewehr 43 machine gun of the *Global War* but has more in common with the MG 46 and its post-war variant, the West Evalk 7.62×51mm SDC MG 1. However, unlike the MG 43's roller-locked short recoil operating principle (where the barrel and bolt recoil together a short distance before unlocking), the ATL-518 uses the delayed blowback method of operation with a fixed barrel and a pair of rollers which retard the rearward movement of the bolt.

The ATL-518 fires from an open bolt and uses a striker firing mechanism (in which the bolt and internally channeled firing pin perform the role of a striker). The trigger mechanism permits fully automatic fire only but the rate of fire can be adjusted by using bolts of varying weight, like in the MG 1. The lighter bolts will produce the maximum rate of fire (1,200 rounds/min) while a heavier bolt results in a rate of fire of approximately 850–900 rounds/min. The weapon features a cross-bolt type safety that disables the sear when pressed into the "safe" position.

The machine gun is fed from an open-link disintegrating ML11 ammunition belt that can be strung loosely from the feed tray or placed inside a 100 or 200-round disposable plastic container, which is then clipped to the left side of the receiver. This ammunition container has a transparent rear wall that allows the gunner to monitor ammunition levels visually. Belt movement is carried out by a pawl-type feeding mechanism, which was modeled on the MG 43's feed system. Spent cartridge casings are ejected downward through a chute in the receiver.

The ATL-518 is fitted with a foldable HL3 stock that is found on elite versions of the MK36 family of rifles, bipod and iron sights that consist of a forward post and a rear aperture sight contained in the carry handle assembly with 300, 600, 800 and 1,000 m range settings. The weapon's design makes extensive use of sheet Cyrrenium stampings; both the receiver, barrel shroud and trigger housing are fabricated from titanium alloy pressings and then welded. The quick-detach bipod has a height adjustment feature and is mounted to the perforated barrel heat shroud at the muzzle end. The light machine gun can be deployed with the bipod, on a vehicle mount or on a static tripod mount.

### Specifications

* Length: 970mm
* Caliber: **5.56x45mm PRJ**
* Effective Range: 550 Meters
* Weight: **4.45 kg**

## Trivia

### General

* Primarily issued to the Command Line, the ATl-518 comes with a standard FDE finish by default, as it was heavily used on arid locations.
	+ Nonetheless, it is typically issued in the standard motif on areas not composed of desert environments.
* The folding buttstock is the HL3, a retractable and folding stock used on an elite edition of the MK36 platform.
* This machine gun is more than light enough for a single soldier to carry and operate.
* According to its designer, it was sourced from a scrapped design by Porschewaffen.
* All ATL-518's were destroyed at the end of the war.
* It can be converted to fire the larger 6.5x39mm round, dubbed the "Tempest", a reverse engineered version of the same caliber used in the DC18H.
* Some ATL-518 machine guns in the Command Line are equipped with Tracking rounds, which are smart targeting rounds that will always hit the intended target of the shooter regardless of the environmental conditions that would affect a conventional bullet's flight path. This allows the gun to precisely hit a target even when firing a barrage of bullets.