The army has gone weapons shopping in the US to get new machine guns for the Danish troops.

Seven hundred lightweight M/60-E6 7.62 mm calibre machine guns from the American manufacturer US Ordnance will replace the German M/62 guns by the start of 2015, the army's operative command, HOK, announced in March.

Lighter and easier to control
Danish soldiers have used the heavier M/62 machine guns since 1962, when machine guns were designed for stationary trench battles. The new M60 is easier to handle and is supposed to be equally effective on hot and sandy desert missions in Afghanistan and in the zero-degrees climate of Greenland.

Its weight has been reduced to 9.27kg, which is 3kg lighter than the M/62. The weapon's slower fire rate of 550 rounds per minute allows for better control, greater accuracy and alternative firing positions, and it is safer to handle than the previous model.

While no official numbers state how much the 700 hundred machine guns have cost the army,  they may have cost up to 300 million kroner, Ingenøren magazine reported.

Rambo's weapon of choice
American soldiers used the M60 during the Vietnam War and nicknamed it 'The Pig' due to its bulky size, but most people will probably recognise it from the 'First Blood' movies in which John Rambo used it to unleash his unstoppable veteran rage on the enemy.