Is it still considered just bullets that come out of rifles and hand guns or would morters and grenades be considered small arms also? Anything an enemy can "carry" with his hands?

Would the enemy die from "small arms" fire if it came from the barrel of a gatling gun from a C130?

Would a 50 cal.be considered "small Arms"? Would caliber make a difference?

Although the source is personally repugnant to me, here is one definition of "small arms" from the United Nations Development Program:

[b]Small Arms[/b]
Revolvers and self-loading pistols
Assault rifles, rifles and carbines
Sub-machine-guns and light machine-guns

[b]Light Weapons[/b]
Heavy machine-guns
Hand-held and mounted grenade launchers
Portable anti-aircraft guns
Portable anti-tank guns, recoilless rifles
Portable launchers of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missile systems
Mortars of calibres of less than 100 mm

[b]Ammunition & Explosives[/b]
Cartridges (rounds) for small arms
Shells and missiles for light weapons
Mobile containers with missiles or shells for single-action anti-aircraft and anti-tank systems
Anti-personnel and anti-tank hand grenades
Landmines and Explosives

[url]www.undp.org/erd/archives/brochures/small_arms/sa8.htm[/url]

Small arms fire is what the Major back at the CP calls the snapping noise he hears on the radio.

For the Lance Corporal providing the sitrep, there is NOTHING small about it since it can kill you just as dead as the big stuff.

I used to be a "Small Arms Repairman" in the Army.

Spent a lot of time borescoping and re-greasing 4.2 inch mortars.

I would consider anything under 20mm small arms.


Aviator  [img]www.milpubs.com/aviator.gif[/img]

Generally speaking, anything that doesn't explode is small arms, though the 40mm(which of course does), is usually considered a type of small arm.  Usually it's anything called a machinegun or smaller.  Anything called a cannon (like a 20mm) is usually not considered a small arm.  

Ross

Last year, trying to get the old BBQ going, I accidentally squirted some starter fluid on my left arm.  Did not notice it and then lit the thing.  The result was that I had a small arms fire.

fire from individual, non-crew-served weapons (rifles, pistols, sub-guns) is small arms fire.

generally I think of small arms fire as bassically anything that an individual soldier can carry and operate. I have even seen manpads conscidered small arms before. usually when you mention small arms this is what come to mind for most people I think.

If I remember correctly, the army defined anything less than .60 caliber as small arms. The russian 14.5mm machines guns were about as big as I can remember seeing on a small arms list.

according to the US ARMY, anything that is 37 MM or smaller is a small arm...

Any round fired by any weapon operated by a soldier that is 5'4" or less is small arms fired...........

Best reply.
Expand on that dry, rueful humor and you can write military fiction like David Drake of "Hammer's Slammers" fame.

Minime with a gun