Seasprites get new teeth

A Navy Seasprite helicopter. Photo / Bradley Ambrose

The navy's Seasprite helicopters have got new teeth.

They have just been fitted with new Belgian FN MAG 58M machine guns to replace the old M60 machine gun, designed in the United States in 1957. Both the M60 and its replacement fire 7.62mm rounds.

The navy said the M60 was "less than reliable in service" because spent cartridges could bounce out of the catch box and back into the gun working parts, causing a stoppage.

The catch box could hold only 150 spent cases - "not good when the ammo box holds 200 rounds", said the navy in its magazine Navy Today.

The M60 also had old fashioned open sights which were too inaccurate "for these days of minimising risk to innocent parties on the ground".

The new FN MAG 58M had already been fitted to the air force's Iroquois helicopters.

It had laser sights but its new mount on the Seasprite doors had been modified to prevent the gun shooting off the nose of missiles carried on the helicopter's weapons pylon.

The new machine gun also had a higher rate of fire - up to 1100 rounds a minute compared with 550 rounds a minute for the M60.

The new machine gun was fitted to the Seasprite on the Anzac frigate HMNZS Te Mana when it left Auckland last month for the Arabian Gulf as part of the fight against international terrorism.

- NZPA