In the late ‘90s, the US Army sought to replace their aging machine gun tripod mount with a lighter, more advanced ground mount system. The legacy system used a traverse and elevation (T&E) mechanism that dated back to the 1930s!
Competing against larger and renowned defense contractors, Capco submitted an innovative proposal and was selected by the U.S. Army to become the developer of the next generation ground mount for medium caliber machine guns.
During development, Capco presented various prototypes to a Fort Benning SFC Subject Matter Expert. This burly, combat veteran scrutinized each prototype carefully. With each prototype he found new features that were improvements over the old system, but something was missing. Finally, one day the Sergeant sat down with Capco Engineers and said, “I’m not an engineer, so I don’t know what you should design.” Gesturing with his hands, he continued, “I just know I want to operate my weapon with my right hand, and with my left hand, operate the mount so that I can rapidly move the weapon in traverse and elevation, and as soon as I release my left hand, the weapon stays locked on target.”
The Sergeant’s layman explanation articulated more in a couple of sentences than paragraphs of contract technical jargon could accomplish. Capco engineers now understood the problem statement and set out on a solution that revolutionized small arms weapon mounting systems.
By 2004, the M192 with its revolutionary T&E was Type-Classified as the new U.S. Army ground mount for medium caliber machine guns. The following year, the M192 was selected by PEO Soldier as one of the U.S. Army’s Top Ten Inventions for 2005.
Over the next several years, Capco produced thousands of mounts for the U.S. Military and, spring boarding off the M192 concept, went on to design and produce thousands of the M205 mount for large caliber machine guns. Thus continuing to lighten the Warfighter’s load while increasing operational capability.