Ukraine's soldiers have been fighting Russia with M2 Browning machine guns, an iconic American weapon. Now, ground robot makers are adding them to their AI-enabled fighting weapons.

The M2 Browning is a heavy machine gun designed near the end of the First World War that fires .50 caliber bullets. It's been in service since the 1930s and fires hundreds of rounds a minute.

We could cut them with such weapons," he said. Green Berets fire a Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in April 2019. US Army/Sgt. Steven Lewis ...

U.S. troops began noticing range limitations in Afghanistan with their M240 machine guns, chambered in 7.62 mm, that reached about 1,500 meters. The M2 .50-caliber machine gun could reach farther ...

However, the reports indicate that the M2 machine gun's effective firing range against aerial targets reaches 1.5 kilometers. "Each unit costs about $150,000.

Also, Guard officials said they would eliminate a proposed area of the gun range with extra-long lanes where guardsmen and women could shoot the .50 caliber M2 machine gun.

John Browning conceived of the .50 caliber M2 Browning machine gun in 1918 toward the end of World War I, though it didn't enter service with the US military until closer to World War II.