Taden

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The Taden was a British experimental general purpose machine gun firing the .280 (7 mm) round. Alongside the EM-2 rifle, it formed part of a proposal to reequip the British Army's infantry with new small arms to replace their ageing .303 weapons.

The Taden and EM-2 projects were discontinued when the United States Army refused to consider the .280 cartridge for the new NATO standard on the basis that it was less powerful than their .30-06 Springfield round (and, as others^[1] have suggested, the reluctance to adopt a round developed outside the USA). It was decided that the experimental weapons couldn't realistically be updated to chamber the new NATO round and alternatives were sought. In the event the British Army reequipped with licence-built variants of the 7.62 mm FN MAG and FN FAL respectively, though a belt fed version of the Bren gun had been in the running for the GPMG role.

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[edit] References

• Hogg, Ian (2002). Machine Guns: 14th Century to Present. DBI Books. ISBN 0873492889.