The M1911 is a single-action, semi-automatic, magazine-fed, recoil-operated handgun chambered for the .45 ACP cartridge, which served as the standard-issue sidearm for the United States armed forces from 1911 to 1985. It was widely used in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.
The M1 Garand is a semi-automatic rifle chambered for the .30-06 Springfield rifle cartridge. It was the first semi-automatic rifle to be generally issued to the infantry of any nation. Called "the greatest battle implement ever devised" by General George S. Patton, the Garand officially replaced the bolt-action M1903 Springfield as the standard service rifle of the United States Armed Forces in 1936 and was subsequently replaced by the selective fire M14 in 1957.
The Thompson is an American submachine gun, designed by John Taliaferro Thompson in 1919, that acquired great fame during the Prohibition times. The Thompson was prized for its ergonomics, compactness, reliability, high rate of fire in automatic mode and use the .45 ACP ammunition. It was used by the Armed Forces of the United States during World War II.
The M777 howitzer is a towed 155 mm artillery piece, successor to the M198 howitzer in the United States Marine Corps and United States Army. The M777 uses a digital fire-control system similar to that found on self-propelled howitzers such as the M109A6 Paladin to provide navigation, pointing and self-location. The M777 is also often combined with the Excalibur GPS-guided munition, which allows accurate fire at a range of up to 25 miles (40 km). This almost doubles the area covered by a single battery to about 5,000 km2.
The AK-47 is a selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle, first developed in the USSR by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is officially known as Avtomat Kalashnikova. Design work on the AK-47 began in the last year of World War II (1945). The original AK-47 was one of the first assault rifles of 2nd generation, after the German StG 44. Even after six decades the model and its variants remain the most widely used and popular assault rifles in the world because of their durability, low production cost, and ease of use.
A rocket-propelled grenade (often abbreviated RPG) is a shoulder-fired, anti-tank weapon system that fires rockets equipped with an explosive warhead. These warheads are affixed to a rocket motor and stabilized in flight with fins. Some types of RPG are reloadable, while others are single-use. RPGs, with the exception of self-contained versions, are loaded from the muzzle.[1] RPGs with HEAT warheads are very effective against armored vehicles such as armored personnel carriers (APCs).
The M2 Machine Gun or Browning .50 Caliber Machine Gun, is a heavy machine gun designed towards the end of World War I by John Browning. It is very similar in design to Browning's earlier M1919 Browning machine gun. It has been used extensively as a vehicle weapon and for aircraft armament by the United States from the 1920s to the present.
A combat shotgun is a shotgun that is intended for use in an offensive role. The development of the repeating pump action shotguns in the 1890s led to their use by US Marines in the Philippines insurrections, but the modern concept of the combat shotgun was fully developed by the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I. The shotgun was used by Allied forces and Allied supported partisans in all theaters of combat in World War II.
The Gatling gun is one of the best known early rapid-fire weapons, invented by Richard Gatling, known for its use by the Union forces during the American Civil War. The Gatling gun's operation centered on a cyclic multi-barrel design which facilitated cooling and synchronized the firing/reloading sequence. Another multi-barrel design is the hydraulically-driven GAU-8 Avenger 30 mm cannon, carried on the A-10 Thunderbolt II (Warthog) attack aircraft.
The Special Operations Corp of the United States (USSOCOM) uses a variety of guns, among which are the H&K Mk23, the M1911A1, the Glock 19 and the H&K P11.
The M1 Abrams Tank is the world's most potent armored vehicle. We'll track its development through such forerunners as the WWII-era M18 Hellcat and the Cold War-era Soviet T-55 tank and see why these "beast-boxes" have ruled ground warfare for decades.
The light machine gun launched mobile warfare by blending massive firepower with the portability of a rifle. We'll see the evolution of this revolutionary weapon from its use in World War I to its modern incarnation: the SAW or Squad Automatic Weapon.
