The M2 Browning .50-caliber Machine Gun is a heavy machine gun designed by John Moses Browning near the end of the First World War. It entered official US Military service in 1933 and is still actively used today, making it the second longest-serving weapon in the US Military after the M1911 pistol.
Though the M2 can be carried by infantry and set up and used on the ground with a tripod, it is most commonly seen as a manually-operated mounted gun on vehicles, tanks, and ships. It has also historically served as the primary weapon for aircraft turrets on American bombers such as the B-17 Flying Fortress. M2 and faster-firing M3 Browning machine guns were also the primary armament of American warplanes during World War II and the Korean War, with loadouts of four, six, or even eight .50 caliber guns.
The M2 Browning continues to be actively produced today, and is a standard weapon for the United States and many other nations.
