Crew-served weapon

Last updated
Sailors prepare a 25-mm crew-served weapon before a live-fire exercise aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Essex. US Navy 090421-N-5538K-041 Sailors prepare a 25mm crew-served weapon before a live-fire exercise aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD 2).jpg
Sailors prepare a 25-mm crew-served weapon before a live-fire exercise aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Essex.

A crew-served weapon is any weapon system that is issued to a crew of two or more individuals performing the same or separate tasks to run at maximum operational efficiency, as opposed to an individual-service weapon, which only requires one person to run at maximum operational efficiency. The weight and bulk of the system often also requires multiple people for transportation. [1] [ page needed ]

Crew-served weapons operated by infantry include sniper rifles, anti-materiel rifles, machine guns, automatic grenade launchers, mortars, anti-tank guns, anti-aircraft guns, recoilless rifles, shoulder-launched missile weapons, and static anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armoured fighting vehicle</span> Combat vehicle with both armament and armour

An armoured fighting vehicle or armored fighting vehicle (AFV) is an armed combat vehicle protected by armour, generally combining operational mobility with offensive and defensive capabilities. AFVs can be wheeled or tracked. Examples of AFVs are tanks, armoured cars, assault guns, self-propelled artilleries, infantry fighting vehicles (IFV), and armoured personnel carriers (APC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Infantry fighting vehicle</span> Type of armored personnel carrier with direct-fire support

An infantry fighting vehicle (IFV), also known as a mechanized infantry combat vehicle (MICV), is a type of armoured fighting vehicle and armoured personnel carrier used to carry infantry into battle and provide direct-fire support. The 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe defines an infantry fighting vehicle as "an armoured combat vehicle which is designed and equipped primarily to transport a combat infantry squad, and which is armed with an integral or organic cannon of at least 20 millimeters calibre and sometimes an antitank missile launcher". IFVs often serve both as the principal weapons system and as the mode of transport for a mechanized infantry unit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Missile</span> Self-propelled guided weapon system

A missile is an airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight aided usually by a propellant, jet engine or rocket motor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rocket-propelled grenade</span> Shoulder-launched anti-tank weapon

A rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) is a shoulder-fired rocket weapon that launches rockets equipped with an explosive warhead. Most RPGs can be carried by an individual soldier, and are frequently used as anti-tank weapons. These warheads are affixed to a rocket motor which propels the RPG towards the target and they are stabilized in flight with fins. Some types of RPG are reloadable with new rocket-propelled grenades, while others are single-use. RPGs are generally loaded from the front.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Recoilless rifle</span> Type of light artillery gun

A recoilless rifle (rifled), recoilless launcher (smoothbore), or simply recoilless gun, sometimes abbreviated to "RR" or "RCL" is a type of lightweight artillery system or man-portable launcher that is designed to eject some form of countermass such as propellant gas from the rear of the weapon at the moment of firing, creating forward thrust that counteracts most of the weapon's recoil. This allows for the elimination of much of the heavy and bulky recoil-counteracting equipment of a conventional cannon as well as a thinner-walled barrel, and thus the launch of a relatively large projectile from a platform that would not be capable of handling the weight or recoil of a conventional gun of the same size. Technically, only devices that use spin-stabilized projectiles fired from a rifled barrel are recoilless rifles, while smoothbore variants are recoilless guns. This distinction is often lost, and both are often called recoilless rifles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Autocannon</span> Rapid-fire projectile weapon that fires armour-piercing or explosive shells

An autocannon, automatic cannon or machine cannon is a fully automatic gun that is capable of rapid-firing large-caliber armour-piercing, explosive or incendiary shells, as opposed to the smaller-caliber kinetic projectiles (bullets) fired by a machine gun. Autocannons have a longer effective range and greater terminal performance than machine guns, due to the use of larger/heavier munitions, but are usually smaller than tank guns, howitzers, field guns, or other artillery. When used on its own, the word "autocannon" typically indicates a non-rotary weapon with a single barrel. When multiple rotating barrels are involved, such a weapon is referred to as a "rotary autocannon" or "rotary cannon", or if it uses a single with a rotating cylinder with multiple chambers, it is known as a "revolver autocannon" or "revolver cannon", both of these systems are commonly used as aircraft guns and anti-aircraft guns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-tank warfare</span> Science and Technology tactics based around countering and immobilizing tanks

Anti-tank warfare originated during World War I from the desire to develop technology and tactics to destroy tanks. After the Allies deployed the first tanks in 1916, the German Empire introduced the first anti-tank weapons. The first developed anti-tank weapon was a scaled-up bolt-action rifle, the Mauser 1918 T-Gewehr, that fired a 13.2 mm cartridge with a solid bullet that could penetrate the thin armor used by tanks at that time and destroy the engine or ricochet inside, killing occupants. Because tanks represent an enemy's strong force projection on land, military strategists have incorporated anti-tank warfare into the doctrine of nearly every combat service since. The most predominant anti-tank weapons at the start of World War II in 1939 included the tank-mounted gun, anti-tank guns and anti-tank grenades used by the infantry, and ground-attack aircraft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-materiel rifle</span> Rifle designed for use against military equipment

An anti-materiel rifle (AMR) is a rifle designed for use against military equipment, structures, and other hardware (materiel) targets. Anti-materiel rifles are chambered in significantly larger calibers than conventional rifles and are employed to eliminate equipment such as engines and unarmored or lightly armored targets. Although not originally designed for use against human targets, the bullet weight and velocity of anti-materiel rifles gives them exceptional long-range capability even when compared with designated sniper rifles. Anti-materiel rifles are made in both bolt-action as well as semi-automatic designs.

This is an index of lists of weapons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raketenjagdpanzer 2</span> Anti-tank missile carrier

The Raketenjagdpanzer 2 or Raketenjagdpanzer SS-11 was a West German tank destroyer employed from 1967 to 1982 and equipped with Nord SS.11 guided anti tank missiles. It was developed at the same time as the Kanonenjagdpanzer and the Marder, and shares a similar chassis with them.

Point defence is the defence of a single object or a limited area, e.g. a ship, building or an airfield, now usually against air attacks and guided missiles. Point defence weapons have a smaller range in contrast to area-defence systems and are placed near or on the object to be protected.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LAHAT</span> Israel made anti-tank guided missile

The LAHAT is a third generation semi-active laser homing low-weight anti-tank guided missile developed since 1991 and manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries. It has a tandem-charge high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warhead. It was designed primarily to be fired by Merkava tanks' 105 mm and 120 mm tank guns, though it matches all types of 105 mm and 120 mm guns, including low recoil guns and low-weight guns of military armoured cars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Small arms and light weapons</span> Two classes of man-portable weapons

Small arms and light weapons (SALW) refers in arms control protocols to two main classes of man-portable weapons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lazar BVT</span> Light tactical military vehicle

The Lazar BVT is a Serbian mine resistant ambush protected vehicle (MRAP), manufactured by Yugoimport SDPR and named after Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović. It is not in operational use by the Serbian Army, which uses modified version, Lazar 3.

A weapon mount is an assembly or mechanism used to hold a weapon onto a platform in order for it to function at maximum capacity. Weapon mounts can be broken down into two categories: static mounts and non-static mounts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rocket (weapon)</span> Weapon utilizing a self-contained rocket engine to propel itself to its target

In military terminology, a rocket is a self-propelled, unguided or guided, weapon-system powered by a rocket engine. Though used primarily as medium- and long-range artillery systems, historically rockets have also seen considerable use as air-to-surface weapons, some use as air-to-air weapons, and even as surface-to-air devices. Examples of modern surface-to-surface rocket systems include the Soviet BM-27 Uragan and the American M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Man-portable anti-tank systems</span> Weapon system designed for infantry use against tanks

Man-portable anti-tank systems are traditionally portable shoulder-launched projectile systems firing heavy shell-type projectiles, typically designed to combat protected targets, such as armoured vehicles, field fortifications and at times even low-flying aircraft.

References

  1. Crew-served Weapons and Gunnery. United States Dept. of the Army. 1954. Retrieved January 26, 2025.