There is no weapon that will not be affected by wear and tear,
those are training weapons that are in used for many years.
Try a brand new one and see the difference.
In fact, IIRC M249 SAW had complaint abt reliability problem too in
Iraq, the result of investigation was I believe wear and
tear!!!
Anyway I posted in another forum quite sometime back where the info
is from Philippines SR officers about the Ultimax in a Filipino
military forum :
I had tried both the M249 and the Ultimax and saw for myself the
distinction as a shooter and infantryman. The manufacturer (CIS)
has corrected the defects of the Ultimax (falling drum-magazine,
double feeding and other malfunctions) which made it an "unwanted"
weapon in the 7th SRC when we were deployed in Maguindanao.
The advantages of the Ultimax include the following:
CIS has a local counterpart company (Floro Arms) which assist the
repairs and parts replacement.
We wont be too dependent of the M855 SS109 linked ammo which the
Arsenal is not capable of producing .
It out-performs the M249 (shot grouping capacity) out to
500m. It should be noted that the Singapore Shooting Team is the
consistent champion in the LMG Category of the Australian Army
Skill At Arms Meeting that we participated recently. I had seen how
the NZ, Aus Army, US AMU and USMC Shooting Team of Quantico (all
were using M249 except NZ team which used the M240B) were "routed"
by the Singaporeans. We were using the brand new M249 from SEB, PA.
Tigok rin kami sa LMG Category!
Perhaps, we can request from Singapore, our ASEAN neighbor, to
design a 1:9 twist bull barrel for the Ultimax so that we can use
either the SS109 and the M193 ball.
We immediately submitted our observations and recommendations to
the CGPA himself when we arrived in December. I hope there will be
positive action very soon.
The Army guys (especially the office boys) who are responsible for
the procurement of our weapon systems must really rethink about
their options. Ultimax or the Minimi? Nasubukan ko na yan... ang
iba, nabola or nagpabola lang sa dealer. Hoooooooooah!
And here another from another PA soldier:
Yup, totally agree with wat is written as above. The Ultimax is
both cheaper and lighter. I have the privilege of firing before
both the Ultimax100 and the Minimi before. The ultimax is light
enough in terms of weight and recoil for a typical Asian soldier to
fir in the standing shoulder postioin and the high kneel position.
It is also good in Urban operations as u do not need to line the
windows with sandbags to support the weapon when firing. In tactics
wise, the Ultmiax gunner that is organic to the infantry section
can take part in the "room capturing" role, instead of just being
used as fire support. This is my personal experience. During one of
the 300m range test, my company mate did a spectacular shoot being
the highest hit rate among the LMG gunners. In fact, he overshot
the marksman criteria by a lot. The secret is in the Ultimax100. He
deliberately deprive the barrel of gas by setting the gas regulator
to a low number at the same time ensuring it doesn't have
stoppages. Thus he could shoot the rounds out one by one!! Coupled
with the low recoil, he easily got the highest score
In conclusion, Ultimax is still the lightest and most
controllable( i.e. most accurate) LMG in the world.
The SAR21 LMG, will it be as controllable and reliable as
Utilmax???
I doubt so, so far HB rifle seldom perform well as a LMG.
