The French Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA) has awarded a contract to FN Herstal to provide its 7.62×51mm Nato-calibre MAG machine gun for its army.

FN MAG machine guns will be mounted on the French Army’s existing vehicles and will replace the existing AN F1 machine guns.

The contract includes the manufacture and supply of more than 10,000 MAG machine guns over a period of several years, and will also provide transformation kits to enable rapid conversion into dismounted weapons.

The DGA has already placed an order for the first 500 units for delivery in 2011.