Turkey has become one of the top firearms-producing countries in the world and–despite a lot of negative press about their destitute-tier shotguns–Turkey is more than capable of delivering quality firearms. Turkey is also a member of NATO and has outfitted its military with NATO-style cartridges as well as NATO-style firearms.

As such it should come as no surprise that a Turkish company has developed a copy of the highly-successful .223 FN Minimi, issued to the US military since the 1980s as the M249 SAW.

The Turkish Kalekalip KMG556CL is a compact, ultra-light belt-fed machine gun developed by Kale Kalıp Makina ve Kalıp Sanayi A.Ş., a leading Turkish defense manufacturer. We examined this new rifle at Enforce Tac 2026 in Germany, and it represents Türkiye’s first NATO-qualified ultra-light 5.56x45mm machine gun. Designed as a more compact variant of the standard KMG556 (a M249 copy), the KMG556CL prioritizes portability without sacrificing sustained firepower.

The main difference between the KMG556CL and a standard M249 is that the KMG556CL has what appears to be a proprietary folding stock, a shorter barrel and shorter upper handguard. Clearly reducing both length and weight and were among the most important engineering requirements when designing this new rifle.

The main problem I had with this rifle is that the suppressor was ugly and had a krinkle-style finish that I found burdensome to the eye. The suppressor has all of the elegant beauty of a 2-Liter of Dr. Pepper that’s been spray-painted black.