From TheBestLinks.com
A personal weapon is a weapon that can be carried and employed by a single person, although their use may be restricted to specialist members of attack or defense teams.
Personal weapons are employed by:
Some examples and applications of personal weapons:
Antipersonnel weapons
These are intended to be used against other combatants.
Limited lethality weapons
These may be used to subdue an opponent with a lower risk of death when properly used.
Edged Weapons
Knife
Used where stealth is required or as a last resort.
Sword
Obsolete, these are now used for ceremonial and martial arts purposes.
Batting Weapons
War Hammer
See war hammer.
Club
A club is an assymetrical stick of moderate length, swung from the light end, similar to a bat used in games. Easily formed from a tree branch this was probably one of the first weapons. May be relatively light for primary use as a walking stick. Also known by various ethnic names such as knobkerry or shillelagh.
Mace
A Mace is a club with spiked enancements.
Chopping Weapons
Hatchet
May be thrown or used offensively or defensively at close quarters (obsolete in modern warfare)
Axe
Now used mainly as a tool for constructing defenses (obsolete in modern warfare).
Halberd
The halberd combines features of a spear and an axe (obsolete in modern warfare).
Penetrating Weapons
Spear
This may be thrown or thrust (obsolete)
Pike
Essentialy a very long spear not intended to be thrown, this was used by pikemen to defend archers, infantry, musketeers etc. against horse calvary (obsolete)
Bayonnet
Attached to a rifle, this allows the rifle to be used as a short spear for thrusting.
Bow and Arrow
This has the advantage of relatively long range and quiet (stealty) operation. Obsolete as a mass use weapon.
Crossbow
The crossbow may be used where Bow and Arrow are appropriate. It is especially suitable for use by less skilled or weaker weaponers and in confined spaces. This became an effective medium range weapon for use against metal plate personal armour. Also used in massive numbers as an area defense weapon in the protection of fortifications, propelling short arrows called bolts or fletchettes (fr. "little arrows"). In this used it was not aimed at a specific target but sent on a high, arching path into masses of opponents. Obsolete as a mass use weapon but now used by some hunters. It is also an effective stealth weapon for special operations, though of limited range.
Handgun
Generally used by officers and guard captains for short range self defense in combat, rather than as an attack weapon. Historically a revolver this is now generally an automatic pistol. The seven shot Colt 45 Automatic (model 1911, 11.43mm) is exempliary of this type, although modern types tend to carry a greater quantity (more than a dozen) of the lighter 9mm rounds.
Even when automatics were preferred for general military use during the 1960's U.S. Navy pilots were equiped with more reliable 38 cal. revolvers for self defense, loaded with tracer rounds for distress signaling.
Long Guns
Musket
The musket fires a round lead ball from a smooth bore and is loaded from the discharge end (and is so called a muzzle loader).
Early Long Rifle
Similar to the musket this fires a spherical or cylindrical bullet, but has a spirally groved barrel to spin the bullet to maintain its orientation through gyroscopic forces. With a cylindrical bullet there is less air resistance and so greater range.
Muskets, smooth bore pistols and early rifles are classified by the ignition mechanisim (called the lock) used to fire the weapon. These include matchlock, flintlock and wheellock types.
Breach Loader
The successor to the muzzle loader was the breach loading rifle. This has a much higher rate of fire.
Carbine
A lightweight repeating rifle typically used in guard duty.
Long Rifle
The Garand .30 caliber (7.65mm) of World War II is typical of this type. This has automatic loading from clips with automatic clip ejection. The German Mauser and U.S. Springfield were typical of earlier multi-shot clip loaded bolt action rifles.
Assault Rifle
Characterised by the ability to be used in single shot or full automatic mode the Kalishnikov AK-47 is the best example of this type. Assault rifles typically will have additional grips to allow fast response operation without positioning the weapon against the shoulder while still allowing this method of operation.
Light Machine Gun
An example of this type used in world war II is the tompson submachine gun (tommy gun).
Shotgun
Useful only at short range this is used in close quarter assaults such as employed in trench warfare or in urban assault situations. The principle advantange is that due to the short range and the conical scatter of shot, precise aiming is not required, while shot is less likely than bullets to penetrate lightweight plaster walls, limiting unintended casualties (collateral damage).
Grenade Launcher
This may be an auxiliary barrel on an assault rifle or may be an accessory for use with a rifle. In the latter case, a blank round (a cartridge without a bullet) is used to generate the propelling gas to launch a grenade.
Hand Grenade
Hand grenades are thrown. A soldier will typically carry two or more of these. A fuse with several second's delay is activated when the weapon is released.
Fragmentation Type
An explosive charge is contained within a rigid shell scored so that it breaks into small fragments propelled at high speed. This increases the effective radius of the weapon.
Concussion Type
An explosive charge is intended to shock with a concussive pressure wave. This may be combined with high intensity flash powders with the intent of disorienting the opponent. The limited effective range offers greater safety to the person employing this weapon.
Antimateriel weapons
Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG)
This is a general purpose weapon. In some theaters of war it has been effectively employed even against low flying helicopters.
Flame Thrower
Propels a burning stream of flammable fluid. Used against occupied fortifications.
Improvised Weapons
Molotov Cocktail. A thrown device, this uses flamable fluid in a breakable container and an ignition source which may be contact operated or ignited before throwing.
Anti-aircraft Weapons
The sophistication of an infra-red tracking missile has been miniaturized to produce the FIM-92 Stinger anti-aircraft missle and others of similar light weight and short range.
Anti-structure Weapons
Satchel Charges
Explosives intended to be placed or thrown at short range against defensive structures or to destroy materiel useful to the enemy.
Antitank weapons
Panzerfaust
This is essentialy similar to a rocket propelled grenade but carries a shaped charge, intended to penetrate substantial armour.
See also
Related links
Top visited
0 of
0 links
[no links posted yet]
>> place link >>
Discussion
Last posted
0 of
0 messages
[no messages posted yet]
>> post message >>
Watch
You can
add this article to your own "watchlist" and receive e-mail notification about all changes in this page.
