Interesting, thanks JmDt.

Could you be more specific regarding what makes the Ameli so poor in your opinion?

The ameli is a light machinegun that was created for give fire suport to the squad level because the MG-42 (M1A1) was too heavy and was 7.62 cal. so we built the AMELI as a 5.56 light MG.

The prototypes were excelent and was sold overseas but when the AMELI was put on high scale produciton (in order to be issued to squad level) the goverment of spain wanted a cheaper version and pushed SANTA BARBARA (builder) to create AMELI with cheaper materials.

The experience was so poor that the spanish military still using MG-42 wich is really reliable but heavy.

HERE you have all the technical data:

- Calibre: 5,56x45.
- Velocidad inicial: 875 m/s.
- Energía en boca: 1.570 j.
- Alcance eficaz: 1.000 m.
- Clase de tiro: ráfagas.
- Cadencia de tiro: 900 disparos/minuto.
- Municiones: cartucho ordinario y trazador.

- Capacidad del cargador: 100 0 200 cartuchos.
- Alimentación: cinta de eslabones desintegrables, almacenados en un
contenedor de material sintético, acoplable al costado izquierdo del arma.
La cinta puede ser también no desintegrable.
- Sistema de puntería: alza integrada en el asa de transporte y punto de
mira regulable y plegable. El alza se puede graduar desde 200 a 1.000 m
(200, 400, 600 y 800m).

Pesos:
- Arma con cinta de 200 cartuchos: 8,3 kg.
- Arma descargada sin bípode: 5,2 kg.
- Bípode: 0,4 kg.
Dimensiones:
- Longitud del arma: 970 mm.
- Longitud del cañón: 400 mm.
- Longitud de la línea de mira: 340 mm.

Originally Posted by JmDt

The experience was so poor that the spanish military still using MG-42 wich is really reliable but heavy.

So the mass-produced Ameli was unreliable?

When was it removed from service in Spain? Was it also replaced by the MG-42 in Mexico?

When they wnated to issue the AMELI to regular army the goverment decide that was expensive so they forced the negociation whith the builder to make it cheaper so the builder used low quality steel and so on...

Don´t know about mexico.

But the prototypes were excelellent I think that UK bought some

MG.JPG











Here you have the 3 MG 42 of my platoon
WWII to 2006 probably the best Machine gun ever buildt

Originally Posted by JmDt

When they wnated to issue the AMELI to regular army the goverment decide that was expensive so they forced the negociation whith the builder to make it cheaper so the builder used low quality steel and so on...

Don´t know about mexico.

But the prototypes were excelellent I think that UK bought some

That would explain why some sites mentioned the UK buying 600 of them ...

Were there a lot of the cheap ones made before the army realised they were no good?

Yes It Was issued to several infantry units (Legion, brigada paracaidista, Infanteria de marina...) But they decided to not use it and use the MG42 instead (that´s the one they heve been using for years) and we have tons of AMELI stored.

The MG42 used the recoil impulse to move the locked barrel and bolt assembly rearward until after a short distance, the bolt unlocked from the barrel and continued rearward ejecting the spent case and moving the belt. I'm not sure that the 5.56mm cartridge generates enough of a recoil impulse to do this reliably.
The belt fed HK's are roller delayed blowback instead of roller locked. This means they don't have to use recoil energy to move the barrel.
Perhaps that was the downfall of the Ameli.

No the that was not the problem because all the prototype series where excellent. The main problenm that I had using It was because of weakeness of the materials and the feeding sistem that didn´t work well (If you Know the MG 42 You can relialise that the feeding sistem is in the cover that is on the top) So when I was firing whith the AMELI I had to push the cover to let it adjust OK.

I Agree whith you that 5.56 has little recoil (That problem was shown in the CETME L ) but that was not the problem of the AMELI.

The CETME C assault rifle (The 7.62 one) is one of the best rifles of it´s generation (The HK G-3 is a licensed version of the CETME C) but when we wanted a 5.56 version CETME L it became a poor rifle so we now use the HK G 36.