Rheinmetall MG 3

The Rheinmetall MG 3 is a German general-purpose machine gun chambered with the 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge. It was derived from the World War II-era MG 42. It was developed in the late fifties and adopted into the newly-formed bundeswehr.

Overview
It was developed in 1959. In 1968, it was introduced as the MG3.

During the Peace Walker Incident, Big Boss and his Militaires Sans Frontieres procured design specs for the MG3 at the Miners Residence. They later procured design specs for a variant that fired armored piercing rounds within some key supplies that they had to transport back to Mother Base and defend from several Peace Sentinel soldiers at the Mine Base. Modifications by the R&D Team were made to the armor piercing model that included an increased magazine capacity.

In-game weapons description
"A general purpose machine gun used by the West German armed forces. It is a modified version of the vaunted WW2-era MG42, with a refurbished chamer to accommodate standard post-war ammunition. The MG3's high rate of fire allows the user to pump dozens of bullets into a target at once. This firepower naturally comes at the price of high recoil, making it extremely hard to control during repeat fire. Novice players are advised to avoid this weapon until they are skilled enough to handle it. (Rank 3) Modified to fire armor-piercing-rounds, further increasing its effectiveness as a weapons system. (Ranks 4-5)This model is furnished with an improved magazine that augments its ammo capacity, giving it long-lasting repeat fire capability to match its power."

- MG3's weapon description from Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker