Кратко: надежный, мощный, точный, компактный - лучше всяких там "хеклеров". На вооружении по выбору, а не по нужде:
Have spent some time on the ground with the Rio military police. They are not part of the military but are rather militarized civilian police comparable to the Spanish guardia civil or the French gendarmes. Rather than precints they are organized in battalions and companies. They could purchase more modern machineguns if they wanted to, and in fact some units, like the special forces battalion known as BOPE have the H&K 21. Most of the men carry CAR-15s, or M-16 carbines (not the M-4), the Brazilian made FN-FAL in 7.62 or a special Brazilian model of the FN-FAL in 5.56mm NATO. They have all kinds of nifty scopes and aiming aids, night vision devices, etc. So they could acquire modern general purpose machineguns, but have chosen not to. The Madsens are very reliable and extremely well made. Even in the BOPE, some of the men prefer the Madsen over the H&K 21, which although light, tends to rattle and vibrate too much. The model of Madsen used by the Brazilians that I saw is the 1932 model that was originally purchased for the Brazilian army. In the 1960s they were rechambered for 7.62x51 NATO and at some point retired from the military and issued to the military police. Although very compact, which makes the weapon ideal for the fighting in narrow urban lanes of the favelas (something that a GPMG performs more awkwardly due to its length) the weapon is surprisingly heavy because of the finely milled parts. This makes it very steady when it fires. The police I talked to really liked the weapon. When they are anticipating significant resistance, it is the weapon of choice. It has a very loud report that terrifies the armed gangs and it also is useful for penetrating the brick walls that most of the houses in the slums are made of which are used by the gang members as bunkers and parapets. This could not be done as well by an M-249 or variant in 5.56mm. My guess is that the Madsen will continue in service with the Brazilian police for some time, not because of low budgets, but by choice.
С уважением
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