Deleted member 1487
Interesting you should mention that, that is the route the Germans took despite having a true MG at the squad level; they pushed it up to the platoon and issue automatic rifles (that they called assault rifles eventually) to the entire squad instead.Well the OP asked for an automatic rifle not an LMG, so a GPMG seemed a bit of a stretch, but yes a GPMG would make sense.
Edit to add, over the years I have discussed this topic with a few individuals who have used belt and or box fed automatic weapons in combat and I have heard some compelling arguments that belt fed weapons at the squad level may not always be the best choice. So maybe a box fed weapon at squad level and belt fed GPMG's at platoon level might be an option if cost is no object. If cost really doesn't matter have both lightweight magazine fed automatic weapons and belt fed GPMG's available and let commanders decide which ones make the most sense at a given point in time.
That's an MG, not an automatic rifle.View attachment 535525
Get that to work. They were an industrial contract away in 1942. Army Ord thought milling was too expensive.
Actually not necessarily a bad idea given normal engagement ranges at the time. Personally I'd say it would be getting to use the same caliber and maybe even bullet as the rest of the rifles and use something closer to a 7.62 Tokarev in power. The Soviets did after all create the LAD, which at least in testing worked very well, just just not as good as their planned RPD/7.62x39.In that case maybe go all the way with that mindset and do what the Czechs did, and adopt a heavy SMG with a folding bipod as the SAW. Good out to 250m, very light, uses pistol rounds so more ammo can be carried...
The belt fed GPMG is outside the scope of this thread, but that was basically the M1919 platoon version IOTL.That sounds like a reasonable approach, issue two per rifle squad and have a belt fed GPMG in 30 06 available as well (your thread implied resources were not really an issue..)