Page "Machine gun" Paragraph 48

During the interwar years, many new designs were developed, such as the Browning M2 and the Thompson sub-machine gun, which, along with others, were used in World War II.

The trend toward automatic rifles, light machine guns, and more powerful sub-machine guns resulted in a wide variety of firearms that combined characteristics of ordinary rifles and machine guns.

The Cei-Rigotti ( 20th century ), Fedorov Avtomat ( 1910s ), AVS-36 Simonov ( 1930s ), MP44, M2 Carbine, AK-47, and AR-15 have come to be known as assault rifles ( after the German term sturmgewehr ).

Many aircraft were equipped with machine cannon, and similar cannon ( nicknamed " Pom-pom guns ") were used as antiaircraft weapons.

The designs of Bofors of Sweden and Oerlikon of Switzerland were widely used by both sides and have greatly influenced similar weapons developed since then.