Japanese Light Machine Guns: The Type 99 LMG

The Japanese 7. 7mm Type 99 took after its predecessor the 6. 5mm Type 96, both machine guns forming the basis of mobile fire support during the Second World War. The Type 99 was a magazine fed, gas operated, light machine gun with a removable barrel that began production in 1941 and continuing until the end of the war. Interestingly it probably was one of the first few light machine gun designs that saw mass issue with an optical sight, something that small arms design wouldn t see again until the SUSAT on