Thread: Kiwi greg??

Originally Posted by lostlegend

small arms (in a military sense) are defined as all weapons capable of firing a projectile from 20mm in diameter and below, so I would class it as a small arm, not an artillery piece.

Depends on who you speak to and how one defines artillery I guess. In the US military anything below 20mm in calibre is classed as a small arm.

I was of the understanding that arms of 20mm calibre or greater could be classed as artillery? E.g. a 20mm in the AA role becomes "AAA". According to NATO the definition of artillery is a piece that isn't man portable and is less than 50mm in calibre. Wikipedia has a category that lists artillery by calibre. The smallest is 20mm. Confusing...

The UN classifies a small arm as a weapon "designed for individual use". Whilst that rifle might be fired by one person, it'd need at least a two-man team to carry and operate it in the field so could possibly be classed
as a crew-served weapon.

EDIT: "Originally artillery was any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons. Since the development of cannon, the word "artillery" in practice has largely meant cannon; in contemporary usage it usually refers to shell-firing guns, howitzers, mortars, and rockets." (wiki)

Perhaps not artillery in a contemporary sense then