After experiencing battles such as the Somme And Verdun, the power of heavy machine guns was vividly highlighted, and countries around the world began to have a deeper understanding of high-power automatic weapons. The light machine gun with the advantages of light weight, easy to carry and quick maneuver has also become a target of attention, and the M1918 light machine gun of the Browning Company of the United States came into being in this context.
After the First World War, the Swedish government planned to equip its army with light machine guns, but due to the lack of experience in independent manufacturing, it decided to order a batch of light machine guns from the United States first, so browning's M1918 light machine gun became sweden's preferred target.
After Sweden introduced the M1918 light machine gun, the Swedish military modified the gun according to its own needs, first of all, the gun must be able to fire 6.5×55 mm Swedish Mauser bullets, rather than the original 7.62 × 63 mm bullets, but still use 20-round magazine feed. At the same time, in order to increase the stability of the light machine gun when shooting, this light machine gun adds a pistol-type grip and a bipod.
In 1923, Sweden purchased the production license of the M1918 light machine gun directly from Browning Company, and also purchased a complete production line, and then began to produce the first modified M1918 light machine gun in Sweden, named Kg M/21 light machine gun.
Although it was produced in a small country, the Kg M/21 light machine gun was also a reliable and durable rapid-fire weapon at that time, but the gun also had a very large defect, and the barrel would overheat during continuous shooting, resulting in the barrel being too hot to touch, so in actual combat, the soldiers' feedback on the gun was not very good.
The speed of the Kg m/21 light machine gun also has three positions: P is semi-automatic, A is fully automatic, and S is safe. The crosshairs are typically flaky, with a protective ring, the gauge is a bore type, and the range is set at 200 to 1200 meters. Although the barrel cannot be quickly removed, tools and a backup barrel are available for field maintenance.
Later, in order to solve the problem of barrel heating, the Swedish Firearms Company designed a latch that could quickly replace the barrel, the barrel lock was connected to the front of the receiver, using a rotating lock ring and an opening thread, so that the barrel could be rotated faster, and finally the handle was pulled upwards to lock the barrel. Thanks to this design, the barrel can be quickly replaced, solving the problem that the barrel is prone to overheating in one fell swoop.
The Kg M/21 light machine gun was equipped by the Swedish National Guard for many years, and it was not until 1937 that the light machine gun began to be officially discontinued, and a magic version of the gun was introduced, the M/37 light machine gun.
The improved M/37 machine gun was well controlled due to its high stability and easy overheating of the barrel, and was generally equipped to regular units due to its good performance. But the production of this M/37 machine gun was so low that it could not meet the needs of the Swedish military. So the Swedish military began to seek other ways to increase the equipment of light machine guns, so the German LH33 light machine gun was included in the swedish procurement list, and began to practice the take-ism, after the purchase of the patent named Kg M/40 light machine gun, began to be mass-produced in the country.
The Swedish M/40 light machine gun still used 6.5×55 mm of ammunition, and in order to prevent the phenomenon of barrel heating during continuous firing, an air-cooled barrel was used to cool down, and the barrel was closed by a vertically inclined bolt, while the vertical tilt bolt was connected to the air piston by means of a swinging connection. However, the gun has never been able to completely replace the position of the M/37 light machine gun.