For the first time since the second world war Canada will be manufacturing its own machine guns. More specifically Colt Canada has taken over production of the C6 General Purpose Machine Gun also known as the C6 GPMG.
This is exciting considering the last time Canada was building machine guns was during the second world war when we built the Bren guns for allied troops.
Right now Colt Canada manufactures the Canadian military C7A2 service rifle, very similar to the american M16 but with some uniquely Canadian improvements.
The C6 goes by many names such as the M240B by the Americans, The L7A2 by the Brits and the FN MAG by the Belgians who originally designed the weapon in 1958. This machine gun fires a 7.62mm bullet at 650-1000 rounds per minute.
In the light role traditionally used by infantry units the gun can reach out to 800m but when fixed on a tripod it reaches ranges of 1800m and beyond. That being said British troops reported using the weapon on a tripod against Argentinian soldiers at a range of 2300m during the Falklands war.
In 2017 the Canadian Forces announced a newer version of the C6 was being rolled out known as the C6 FLEX, which replaced the wooden stock with a polymer one and added a rail of the feed cover to attach an optic. 
It isn’t clear why the Canadian Forces have shifted to Colt Canada for the manufacturing but it remains a big change none the less. XFM reached out to Colt Canada for comment on the new weapon systems but at the time of writing have not heard back.
