The war in Ukraine is sparking renewed interest in tried-and-true machine guns, including some dating back to World War II, according to a leading manufacturer.
FN Browning’s global demand and production this year for machine guns is expected to double that of 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, a senior representative for the Belgian armsmaker told Business Insider.
“Most countries were simply not interested 10 years ago. Now, we have contracts,” said Henry de Harenne, FN Browning’s head of communications and a member of its executive committee.
The group, wholly owned by the Belgian government, does not sell directly to Ukraine but counts Kyiv’s allies, such as the US, UK, France, and Belgium, among its clients. It also sells to non-NATO states, such as Australia and India.
Business Insider visited its factory campus in Herstal, where the firm produces the M2 Browning heavy machine gun, the FN MAG general-purpose machine gun, and the FN Minimi light machine gun. The FN Mag and Minimi are also known in the US as the M240 or M249.
While other firms around the world make these firearms, FN was the original company to mass-produce such machine guns for NATO and remains their de facto manufacturer.
The company also manufactures rifles such as the FN SCAR and NATO-standard ammunition, including 5.56mm, 7.62mm, and 12.7mm rounds. De Harenne said that overall demand for ammo at FN Browning is now more than four times the demand in 2022.
The M2’s rise in Ukraine
The .50 caliber M2, in particular, has re-entered the spotlight this year in Ukraine for its role in air defense.
Mobile crews mount these heavy machine guns on civilian trucks to shoot down slow-flying Russian Shahed attack drones, though the Kremlin is adopting new flying maneuvers that make it harder to hit them.
De Harenne said it’s difficult to know if Kyiv’s use of machine guns against drones is responsible in any way for increased global demand. Geopolitical hostilities with Russia and tensions with the US have also fueled new political will for defense spending in Europe, which said it plans to dedicate some $930 billion on rearming its militaries by 2030.
But interest in machine guns, old and new, has definitely spiked, de Harenne said. He cited the French Army recently sending in aged M2s left behind by US forces in World War II.
“We take them here, we upgrade them, and we give them a warranty like it’s brand new,” de Harenne said, adding that FN has so far retrofitted 2,000 of these guns for France.
American inventor John Moses Browning designed the belt-fed heavy machine gun in 1921. By 1945, the US had produced and distributed over 2 million M2s among Allied forces.
FN Browning became NATO’s main global producer of the M2 in the 1950s, and over 90 countries still use the heavy machine gun in their modern militaries.
The M2 is a common infantry weapon that fires while mounted on a tripod. From a fixed position, it can bring enemy troops and light vehicles under withering .50 caliber fire — up to roughly 600 rounds per minute — and is accurate against targets a mile away. Ukraine has also experimented with ground robots that carry the M2.
De Harenne declined to say how many M2s and other machine guns the Belgian group is producing and refurbishing, but said it is in the thousands every year.
The race to rearm after the Cold War
FN Browning reported turnover of 1.3 billion euros, or $1.5 billion, in 2024, though this was after it combined revenues with Sofisport, a Paris-based ammo producer that it purchased this year. FN Browning reported annual revenues of 908 million euros in 2023, down 5% from 956 million euros in 2022.
De Harenne said annual turnover was static despite the surge in machine-gun demand due to lower sales in FN Browning’s sport shooting division, which is coming off a boom during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He declined to say how much the firm expects demand for machine guns to increase in the near future. But he said its factory campus in Herstal currently employs about 1,600 people and is seeking to recruit another 100 mechanics, machinists, and other staff for ammo production.
Ukraine’s drone war is shaping market demand in other ways; de Harenne said governments have been asking more about firearms for countering uncrewed aerial platforms.
Kyiv’s troops, for example, frequently use shotguns as a final line of defense against incoming attack drones. FN Browning makes a range of semiautomatic and pump shotguns, such as the FN SLP and P-12.
The company is also working with a third-party artificial intelligence firm to integrate AI into its remote weapons stations for target recognition and precision against drones.
Overall, de Harenne said, the tactics in the Ukraine war and concerns of a Russian invasion have spurred FN Browning’s busiest period in decades.
“Certainly, since the end of the Cold War. No question,” he said.
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