Weapons: Weapons have been a part of our lives since ancient times used for warfare and hunting. The modern weapons list might be different ancient weaponry. Earlier weapons were mainly used for survival and hunting, so the list included only hand weapons. But with the advancement of time, weapons have also become advanced.
In this article, we have developed a list of weapons, which will give you an insight into what weapons were or are being used and how they work. This weapons list will also teach you about the degrees of fighting and its impact.
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List of Weapons
Name of Weapons
Description of Weapons on the list
Artillery
A class of heavy military ranged weapons were built for launching munitions beyond the power and range of infantry firearms. They were used for discharging missiles, and with the advancement of technology, lighter, improved, more mobile artillery cannons have been developed for the battlefield.
These guns are artillery pieces that are fired from the ground or shipboard to defend against any aerial attack. In 1910, when aeroplanes began to be used as an effective weapon, antiaircraft weapons were developed.
Cannons, mortar, or big gun as distinguished from a rifle, musket or small arm. Modern cannons are made from high-grade steel with complex mechanisms and have been machined for exacting tolerances.
Antitank weapons were developed as a response to tanks. After World War 1, the first response to the introduction of tanks was large-calibre rifles and a variety of grenades designed for penetrating tanks’ relatively thin armour or disabled tracks.
This is the type of 16.5-inch howitzer which was first used by the German army for bombarding French and Belgian forts during the first World War. This gun was designed and built under extreme secrecy by Krupp, the largest armament manufacturer in Germany.
Also known as Coast Artillery, these are weapons used for discharging missiles and are placed along the shore for defence against naval attack. Even though it played a small role in World War 1, it became apparent in the next two decades.
A versatile 3.46-inch multirole artillery piece was developed in 1917 by Germany. It was tested during the Spanish Civil War and extensively used by the German’s during World War II as a field artillery piece.
The first fully automatic machine gun was developed by the inventor and engineer Hiram Maxim around 1884. Used by every significant power, these maxim machine guns were recoil-operated and cooled by a water jacket that surrounded the barrel.
Short-barreled, portable, muzzle-loading artillery piece which fires explosives which projectiles at low, short velocities and arching, high trajectories. These mortars have the advantage of portability due to their size.
It is a shoulder-type German antitank weapon widely used during the First World War. It was first developed in the year 1943 for the use of infantry against Soviet tanks. It consisted of a steel tube having a propellant charge of gunpowder.
It is a long-range cannon produced by the German arms manufacturer Krupp during World War 1. They were so-called as they were built specially to shell Paris at a range never before attained of approximately 75 miles.
It is an early Austrian water-cooled machine gun that operates on the blowback principle. A spring and heavy breech-lock hold the bolt closed until the pressure has been reduced to a safe level.
Chemical weaponry
Chemical weaponry is toxic compounds that can cause severe choking, blistering or extensive damage to one’s nervous or circulatory system. They have been used historically in genocide and warfare and presently during law enforcement.
It is a chemical warfare sneeze gas developed during the First World War by the United States.
It is an odourless crystalline organic compound used in various forms as a lung irritant. It appears like yellow smoke that irritates the lungs, eyes and mucous membranes, causing several discomforts.
Germany used a poison chemical warfare gas during the First World War. It is a colourless, poisonous, moderately persistent organic compound. It can be easily condensable to the liquid form. It is a respiratory irritant.
A solution of water and hydrogen cyanide is known as hydrocyanic acid. It is a highly volatile, colourless, and highly poisonous liquid. It was discovered by a Swedish chemist, Carl Wilhelm Scheele, a Swedish chemist who used to prepare it from the pigment Prussian blue.
Developed by the United States during the First World War, it is a chemical warfare, poison blister gas. The vapour of this substance is highly toxic when inhaled or as it comes in contact with the skin. It irritates the lungs and blisters the skin.
It is chemical warfare that affects the transmission of nerve impulses via the nervous system. They were produced in large quantities by the Soviet Union and the US during the Cold War. A single droplet of this, if inhaled or comes in contact with skin, gets absorbed into the bloodstream and paralyses the nervous system.
It is a chemically reactive, colourless, highly toxic gas having an odour. It first became popular during World War I, either mixed with chlorine or alone against troops. Inhalation can cause severe lung injury with the full effects that appear several hours after exposure.
These are a group of substances that irritate the mucous membranes of one’s eyes, that causes a stinging sensation and tears. They can also irritate the respiratory tract causing choking, coughing and general debility. It was first used during World War I.
Biological weaponry
Biological weaponry is microorganisms like bacteria, viruses, fungi and other toxins which are created and deliberately for causing disease and death in animals, plants and humans. During the wars, many countries used this cruel mechanism to wipe out in mass their enemies. Some of the biological weaponry has caused worldwide endemics killing innumerable people.
This is an infectious, acute and febrile disease of both humans and animals caused by the bacterium. Under certain conditions forms highly resistant spores capable of retaining virulence for many years. Humans can develop this by eating meat or handling bones, hair or hides of affected animals.
It is an infectious disease caused by a bacterium known as Yersinia pestis transmitted from rodents to people by the bite from infected fleas. Plague has caused the most devastating epidemics in the history of humankind.
It is self-limited, acute and systematic acute. Q fever spreads rapidly in sheep, goats and cows, and it tends to occur in people localised outbreaks. The clinical symptoms of this are chills, fever, pneumonia and severe headache. The disease is generally mild, and the complications are rare.
Also known as the toxic protein, it occurs in the bean-like seeds of the castor-oil plant. German scientist Peter Hermann Stillmark discovered it in the year 1888. It is one of the most toxic substances. It is used as a biological weapon caused due to the ingestion of castor oil.
It is an acute infectious disease that begins with headache, high fever and back pain and then proceeds to become an irruption on the skin that leaves the limbs and face covered with pockmarks or pox. For many centuries it was the most dreaded plague in the world, killing almost 30 per cent of its victims.
Ranged combat weapons
These ranged combat weapons are any weapons that can harm their targets at a distance greater than hand-to-hand distance. The ranged combat weapons provide the attacker with an advantage in combat as the target has lesser time to react and defend.
It is a South American-Indian weapon mainly used for hunting. It consists of stone balls generally in a group of three attached with long, slender ropes. Bolas was used by Uruguay to catch cattle and gauchos of Argentina.
It is a curved stick that was used chiefly by the Aboriginals of Australia for warfare and hunting. They often carve designs and paint on them things related to traditions and legends. It continues to be used in some religious ceremonies.
It is a weapon having a stave that is made of wood or other elastic material and led in tension through a string. The arrow is a thin wooden shaft having a feathered tail, fitted to the string by a notch at the end of the post and is drawn back until proper tension is achieved in the bow so that when released, it propels.
It is a leading missile weapon from the Middle Ages, having a short bow that has been fixed transversely on a stick initially of wood. It consists of a groove to guide the missile, generally called a bolt, a sear for holding the string in the crocked position and a trigger for releasing it.
It is implemented for propelling missiles, one of the first missile weapons which are used in warfare. It has a small strap or socket of leather to which two cords have been attached. There are many references to this in the Bible.
Explosives
Explosives are conventional weapons activated by the detonation of highly explosive substances creating a fragmentation and blast zone. During the war, many countries dropped explosives on their enemies.
Also known as depth bomb, it is a type of weapon which is used by surface aircraft or ships for attacking submerged submarines. The first depth bombs were developed by the British during the First World War. It consisted of a canister flown with explosives rolled or dropped off the stern of a ship.
The dirty bomb is also known as a dispersion device designed for scattering radioactive material. Unlike the atomic bomb’s explosive power, the dirty bombs explosive power comes from ordinary conventional explosives like TNT or dynamite. When it detonates, it scatters radioactive material, which is in close proximity.
It is a small chemical explosive or gas bomb which is used at short range. The grenade came into use during the 15th century and was found to be specifically effective when exploded among enemy troops in the ditch of a fortress during an assault.
A homemade bomb, IEDs are constructed from military or nonmilitary components, frequently employed by insurgents, guerrillas and other nonstate actors as crude but effective weaponry against any conventional military force.
In naval and military operations, a generally stationary explosive device is devised for destroying ships, personnel or vehicles when the latter came in contact. The submarine mine is an underwater weapon that consists of an explosive charge fitted with a device, causing it to explode.
The shrapnel projectiles contain small shots or spherical bullets generally of lead, along with an explosive charge for scattering the shot as well as fragments of the shell casing. This shrapnel caused the majority of artillery inflicted wounds during the First World war.
It is a highly explosive organic compound traditionally used for varnishes and paints. PETN is a sensitive compound and is easily denoted by the appropriate mechanical shock. It was introduced as a commercial explosive after the First World War and was first synthesised in 1894.
RDX is a powerful explosive patented in 1898 but was not used until the Second World War. RDX is inexpensive and safe to manufacture, and it was produced on a large scale in the United States. RDX is a white, hard crystalline solid, insoluble in water and slightly soluble in other solvents.
Missiles
A missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon that is capable of a self-propelled flight, generally by a rocket motor or jet engine. Missiles can vary from small tactical weapons to a hundred feet.
The ABM was designed for interrupting and destroying ballistic missiles. Effective Antiballistic Missile systems have been sought since the Cold War. In the last 1960s, both Soviet Union and the US developed nuclear-armed ABM systems which combined a high-altitude interceptor missile.
Intercontinental Ballistic Missile is land-based, nuclear-armed ballistic missiles having a range of more than 5,600 km; only Russia, China and the United States field land-based missiles of this range. Soviet Union developed the first ICBMs in the year 1958, followed by the US next and China 20 years later.
These are made by the US and are mobile short-range ballistic missiles capable of carrying either a nuclear warhead or a conventional warhead. They were also sold for use by many member countries of the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) as well as by Israel. They are about 20 feet long.
Also known as MX, ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) was a part of the US strategic nuclear arsenal from 1986 to 2005. The MX was the most sophisticated ICBM that was fielded by the US during the Cold war against the Soviet Union.