Defence Redefined

Published on 15/09/2020 at 14:00

A colonial era machine gun went missing yesterday from a National Guard camp in Evrychou.

The Vickers machine gun, which was located outside the camp site as an exhibit, was deactivated and its moving parts were not in operation.

This weapon is a water-cooled, British (7.7 mm) machine gun that was manufactured in 1912 by Vickers Limited for the British Army.

Also read: The Minister of Defence inspected positions and facilities of the National Guard in Paphos and Tilliria – Photos

Six soldiers are required to assemble and carry the machine gun parts. The weight of the machine gun ranged from 11 to 14 kg with a tripod weighing from 18 to 23 kg.

The ammunition boxes for the 250 round ammunition belts weighed 22 kg each. In addition, it required about 4.3 liters of water in the cooling system to prevent overheating and had a capacity of 450 rounds per minute.

This is the gun:

Watch it in action: