The weapons, equipment, and supplies that permit lethal or nonlethal devices to strike their targets. Armaments can be classified as field artillery, individual and crew-served weapons (infantry), armor and antiarmor, antiaircraft, helicopter armaments, and mines and countermines.
Field artillery
Artillery can deliver highly lethal warheads to ranges well beyond the reach of infantry weapons. Artillery includes rockets, missiles, and self-propelled and towed howitzers (cannon). Artillery fire support is designed to meet adversarial forces by attacks on personnel and on medium and hard targets such as troop carriers and tanks. This mission is conducted at extended ranges with high-explosive projectiles, projectiles with shaped-charge submunitions, and the Copperhead guided projectile. Artillery can also channel, delay, and destroy oncoming forces by delivery of antipersonnel and antitank mines. Future goals include the use of smart munitions; increased range, lethality, and firing rates; new propulsion techniques; cartridge course correction in flight; and systems which permit much greater battlefield versatility.
Individual and crew-served weapons (infantry)
Infantry armament is composed largely of line-of-sight, direct-fire weapons and indirect-fire mortar weapons used by nonmechanized light infantry (60-mm and 81-mm mortars) and mechanized infantry and armor divisions (120-mm mortars).
Many small-caliber weapons have been introduced as replacements or additions to the inventory. Improvements in hit probability, combat load, and target acquisition of small-caliber weapons over those of the current systems are being pursued. The long-term objective is a family of small arms that may feature composite materials, bursting ammunition, laser fire control, night-vision devices, and microelectronics.
The U.S. Army uses three mortar weapon systems: the 60-mm M224 lightweight company mortar, the 81-mm improved M252 mortar, and the 120-mm M120 mortar. The 107-mm M30 mortar has been replaced by the 120-mm M120 mortar (towed and ground mounted) and the 120-mm M121 mortar (carrier mounted). Each type of mortar fires a family of projectiles, including high-explosive, smoke, illuminating, and full-range and short-range practice cartridges.
The primary shoulder-launched infantry munitions consist of the AT4 recoilless rifle and the shoulder-launched multipurpose assault weapon-disposable (SMAW-D) bunker defeat munition.
Armor and antiarmor
The primary armored weapon systems consist of the M1 and M1A1 main battle Abrams tanks; the more lightly armored Bradley M2 infantry and M3 cavalry fighting vehicles; and the M113 family of armored personnel carriers. Major thrusts in armament development have resulted in conversion of the rifled 105-mm cannon in the M1 tank to the 120-mm smoothbore cannon in the M1A1 tank, and the utilization of tungsten and depleted-uranium long-rod penetrators for maximum antiarmor effectiveness. Increased protection against penetration by kinetic-energy and shaped-charge ammunition has been provided by the use of laminate Chobham-type armor and reactive armor.
Air defense
There are a number of air defense weapons. These include the Avenger Air Defense System, the hand-held Stinger rocket, and the Patriot system.
The Stinger is a human-portable, shoulder-fired, two-stage, infrared homing missile, designed to attack and destroy at short range any low-altitude, fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft with a high-explosive fragmentation warhead. The Stinger is to be replaced by the Linebacker Air Defense System.
The Avenger Air Defense System is mounted on a Humvee (high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles; HMMWV). It is lightweight and transportable and designed to counter enemy cruise missiles, crewless aerial vehicles, and low-flying fixed-wing or rotary aircraft.
The Patriot system fires MIM-104 surface-to-air missiles at attacking aircraft and missiles at ranges up to 37.3 mi (62.3 km), providing medium- and high-altitude defense. It was used in the first Persian Gulf War to defend against Iraqi-launched SCUD missiles.
Helicopter armaments
The major combat aircraft used in support of ground operations are the AH-64 Apache and the AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters. Both helicopters are highly mobile and are capable of destroying moving armored columns and other point and area targets on the modern battlefield. See also Helicopter.
Mines
The U.S. Army places great emphasis on the use of mines in modern warfare. A family of mines and modes of delivery have been developed, which include scatterable antipersonnel and antitank mines (family of scatterable mines; FASCAM) that have high utility because they can be emplaced by artillery, aircraft, and ground vehicles at close-in and extended ranges. They are autonomous after deployment, are effective over a time period, and self-destruct to permit occupation of the area by friendly forces.
