French AANF1 machine gun in Ukrainian Defense Forces

2 June, 2023 A soldier of the Ukrainian Defense Forces with an AANF1 machine gun. Photo credits: Twitter A French AANF1 7.62x51mm machine gun was spotted in the hands of the Ukrainian Defense Forces' soldiers.

Photos of this weapon were published on the Historical Firearms | Matthew Moss Twitter page. The author also shared a photo of the VAB APC. This may suggest that he is probably a crew member of this APC.

VAB armored personnel carriers of the Defense Forces of Ukraine.

Photo credits: Twitter

There is an assumption that the APCs that France handed over to Ukraine in significant amounts were equipped with AANF1 7.62x51mm machine guns. Previously, Militarnyi reported on the use of VAB by the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces. VAB armored personnel carriers have become another type of military equipment that Ukraine's international partners have provided to combat Russia's full-scale armed aggression.

The soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine noted that the French armored vehicle is compact and quite capacious inside and provides comfortable conditions for troops. Such APCs are designed to solve the widest range of tasks in both reconnaissance and the battlefield. The AA-52 machine gun was developed in the late 40s as the MAS 7.5x54mm general-purpose machine gun for the French Army after First Indochina War.

In the 1960s, it was upgraded to use the 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge. The improved version received the designation AANF1 and is still used today.

ANF1 general-purpose machine gun. Photo by Crochet.david

The machine gun was partially withdrawn from service in 2010 and replaced by the FN MAG.

Nevertheless, it is still used by the armed forces of France and the armies of several other countries.