Ukrainian Army Receives French AANF1 Machine Guns for Armored Personnel Carriers

The Ukrainian army received French AANF1 machine guns. This is evidenced by published on Twitter photograph soldier of the Defense Forces of Ukraine.

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The author also published a photo of the VAB armored personnel carrier. Apparently, he is one of his crew members. Most likely, AANF1 machine guns are equipped with armored personnel carriers transferred to the Ukrainian army by France. According to “Military”, VAB armored personnel carriers entered service with the DShV.

According to the fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, despite its compactness, the French armored personnel carrier is quite roomy. Infantrymen feel comfortable in it. VAB armored personnel carriers are designed to solve a wide range of tasks.

The AA-52 machine gun was developed in the late 40s as a single MAS machine gun for the French army. When designing it, the experience gained during the war in Indochina was taken into account. Initially, it had a caliber of 7.5×54 mm. In the 60s, the machine gun was upgraded to the NATO caliber 7.62×51 mm. It was named AANF1. The French army uses such machine guns to this day.