AA-52 machine gun

The AA-52 (full designation in French: Arme Automatique Transformable Modèle 1952, "Transformable automatic weapon model 1952") is one of the first French-produced guns of the

The AA-52 general-purpose machine gun was conceived and developed following the French military's experiences in the First Indochina War during the early 1950s. At that time, the French army was equipped with an assortment of weapons from British and American sources, as well as some German weapons from the Second World War.

Effective supply of ammunition and replacement parts was an almost insoluble task and the army decided to adopt a standard machine gun. The result was the AA-52, conceived for ease of production. The construction is of simple welded stamped sheet steel.

The AA-52 was partially withdrawn from the service of the French army in 2008. It was replaced in the 2010s by 10,881 FN MAG general-purpose machine guns.^[9][10]

Design

The AA-52 is a peculiar weapon among modern machine guns because it uses

The feed and trigger mechanisms are derived from the MG 42.

The AA-52 can be used as a

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  AA-52 machine gun on display.

Variants

NF-1

The AA-52 originally used the standard 7.5×54mm French cartridge. The general adoption of the 7.62×51mm NATO cartridge reduced the opportunity for export sales, and the gun was adapted for this standard NATO calibre. The new, adapted gun was designated AANF-1 (also ANF-1 or NF-1).^[11]

MAC-58

The MAC-58 was a version of the AA-52 chambered in .50 BMG. A few prototypes were tested and one retained for preserial production, but it never reached production due to the large quantity of US M2 Browning machine guns already in service with the French armed forces.

Users

•  Argentina^[12]
•  Belgium: Twin AA-52 machine guns were found in Fouga Magister attack aircraft.^[13]
•  Benin^[14]
•  Bolivia ^[15]
•  Burkina Faso^[14]
•  Cameroon^[16]
•  Central African Republic^[14]
•  Comoros^[14]
•  Côte d'Ivoire^[14]
•  Djibouti^[14]
•  Dominican Republic
•  France: F1 variant.^[14]
•  Gabon^[14]
•  Georgia: used some ANF1 to protect Camp Warehouse, Afghanistan, under French command.^[17]
•  Indonesia: AAT-F1 variant mounted on AMX-10 PAC 90 of Korps Marinir.^[18]
•  Ireland: Twin AA-52 7.62mm machine guns were fitted to the Irish Panhard AML 60-7 CS armoured cars.^[19]
•  Ivory Coast^[20]
•  Lebanon mounted on VAB mephisto^{[citation needed]}
•  Madagascar^[14]
•  
  Armed and Security Forces of Mali^[14]
•  Mauritania^[14]
•  Morocco: F1 variant.^[14]
•  Niger^[14]
•  Senegal^[14]
•  Seychelles^[14]
•  Somalia^[14]
•  Togo^[14]
•  Tunisia^[21]
•  Ukraine^[22]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to AA-52.

• AAT Mod.52 / Mod. F1 at Modern Firearms