Girish Mahajan (Editor)

UKM 2000

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Place of origin
  
Poland

Designed
  
2000

Used by
  
Poland

UKM-2000

Type
  
General-purpose machine gun

Wars
  
Iraq War, War in Afghanistan

Manufacturer
  
Zakłady Mechaniczne Tarnów

The Zakłady Mechaniczne "Tarnów" UKM-2000 is a 7.62×51mm NATO general-purpose machine gun designed in Tarnów, Poland.

Contents

Development

On March 12, 1999 Poland joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. A problem arose with modifying the weapons of the Polish Army to use the standard NATO ammunition. A decision was made to develop a new general-purpose machine gun. The construction was based on the design of the successful PK/PKS machine gun.

The UKM-2000 is a primary GPMG on most vehicles used by Polish Forces in Afghanistan (Cougar H, MaxxPro Dash, M-ATV, Humvee) and is a coaxial machine gun in KTO Rosomak and Polish-modernized BRDM-2.

There is a proposal of modernization of the Polish UKM-2000 general purpose machine gun (GPMG) fed by 7.62×51mm NATO to the new UKM-2013 standard. The upgraded GPMG will be equipped with a new folding and telescopic buttstock with a cheekpiece and additional grip/pod, the integrated Picatinny rail with iron sight and 3-rail forehand attached to the gas tube, new grip, new cocking handle new safety switch selector, a new 440-mm barrel (as an option) plus some additional internal changes. The Polish Army is interested in this machine gun fed from the 100-round soft ammo bag instead of a steel box. Because of external similarity to the Russian PKM GPMG chambered to the 7.62×54mmR some elements like a buttstock, a grip or a forehand with rails will able to be used with the Kalashnikov design.

Variants

  • UKM-2000C(L) - coaxial version of UKM-2000, successor of the PKT. Use on KTO Rosomak and some Polish modernized BRDM-2. Modifications include the removal of the stock, a longer and heavier barrel, a gas regulator and an electric solenoid trigger.
  • UKM-2000D - airborne version with folding stock, limited use in Polish Armed Forces
  • UKM-2000P - standard GPMG version, some also equipped with MIL-STD-1913 rail.
  • UKM-2000Z - first attempt to modernization of UKM-2000, new telescoping stock and black polymer pistol grip. It wasn't adopted.
  • UKM-2013C(L) - modernization of UKM-2000C(L) presented in 2012
  • UKM-2013P - modernization of UKM-2000P presented in 2012, better ergonomy and functionality, new folding and telescopic buttstock with a cheekpiece and additional grip/pod, the integrated Picatinny rail with iron sight and 3-rail forehand attached to the gas tube, new grip, new cocking handle new safety switch selector, a new 440-mm barrel (as an option) plus some additional internal changes, new soft ammo bag instead of typical for PK family steel box magazine
  • UKM-2000M/UKM-2015 - version that will be in tests in mid-2014, probably to introduction in 2015

    • The L in a coaxial version denotes the ammunition is fed from the left instead of from the right.

    Operators

  •  Poland - around 1200 examples used by Polish Land Forces and Military Gendarmerie.
  •  Nigeria

    • References

    UKM-2000 Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA