CETME Ameli

The CETME Ameli is a Spanish light machine gun developed in the 1970s and adopted in the early 1980s. Its name abbreviates Ametralladora ligera, or light machine gun, and it was intended to provide squad-level automatic fire in 5.56 mm NATO. The weapon reflects Spain's attempt to produce a domestic support weapon rather than rely entirely on foreign designs.

The Ameli's appearance often invites comparison with the MG42 or MG3, but its internal logic belongs to the CETME roller-delayed family. It uses belt feed and can be fired from bipod or mount, giving infantry a compact automatic-fire weapon. The design sought low weight and high rate of fire, but reliability and sustainment reputation affected its broader appeal.

In service, the Ameli is best understood as a nationally significant but internationally limited light machine gun. It gave Spanish units a domestic squad support weapon, yet its export footprint remained modest. Its value for HiWars is in showing how the CETME mechanism was adapted beyond rifles into belt-fed automatic weapons.