Anti-personnel weapon

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
M18 Claymore
Anti-Personnel-Mine is detonated, it sends out 700 metal balls traveling at high velocity. These balls can kill or seriously injure any people in the 100-meter blast radius.

An anti-personnel weapon is a

armored fighting vehicles
, or use explosively formed penetrators to punch through armor plating.

Many modern weapons systems can be employed in different roles. For example, a tank's main gun can fire armor-piercing ammunition in the anti-tank role, high-explosive ammunition in the anti-structure role and fragmentation shells in the anti-personnel role.

There are also more exotic classes of weapons, such as

civilians
, as well as causing long spanning consequences when they are not detonated in the case of buried explosives.

Debates

A debate has arisen over whether some primarily anti-material weapons can be used as anti-personnel weapons. The

laws of war. However, Maj. Hays Parks states that "No treaty language exists (either generally or specifically) to support a limitation on [the use of .50 BMG] against personnel, and its widespread, longstanding use in this role suggests that such antipersonnel employment is the customary practice of nations."[1]

The Raufoss Mk.211 round

The

U.S. military for this round.[3][4]

The multipurpose name is based on the projectile having an

M2 Browning. Due to its popularity several U.S. arms manufacturers produce the round under license from NAMMO Raufoss AS.[6]
There is also a tracer variant, the MK300, used in the Browning heavy machine gun.

There has been much debate over whether the Mk 211 projectile is legal to use against personnel, or if it is strictly anti-

St. Petersburg Declaration of 1868 the "military or naval" use of explosive or incendiary projectiles with a mass of under 400 grams is forbidden.[7]
Very few nations were parties to the St. Petersburg Declaration, however, and that declaration does not govern the conduct of non-signatory parties. Further, the Hague treaties of 1899 and 1907 – which superseded the St. Petersburg Declaration, and were signed by a far wider circle of nations – do permit the use of such ammunition for auto-cannons and heavy machine guns. Machine guns firing .50 cal/12.7mm ammunition are heavy machine guns. At best, the ICRC's position can be applied to only a small group of nations that were parties to the St. Petersburg Declaration; at worst, the ICRC's position is made moot by more than 100 years of subsequent international treaties.

The official stance of the Norwegian Government is that the 12.7 mm MP round should not be used against personnel, but an exception has been made for snipers using the round — due to the practical limitations of snipers having to change the type of ammunition used when switching between hardened and soft targets.[citation needed] It is being exported strictly in an anti-matériel capacity. Most nations[who?] using the round train their soldiers not to deploy the projectile against personnel, but in the heat of battle such regulations are easily overlooked. Also, many parties currently fielding the ammunition have no such regulations, including the U.S., whose policy is that the ammunition is suitable for use against all targets.[citation needed]

References

  1. ^ Parks, Maj W. Hays (January 1988). "Killing A Myth". Marine Corps Gazette. Archived from the original on February 28, 2014. Retrieved February 20, 2014.
  2. ^ "Nammo AS - 12,7mm (.50 Cal)". Nammo AS. Archived from the original on April 15, 2008. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
  3. ^ "20mm AMR – New Use for Unused Ammo" (PDF). Defense Technical Information Center. p. 12. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 4, 2011. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
  4. ^ "Army Ammunition Data Sheets for Small Caliber Ammunition" (PDF). Defense Technical Information Center. April 1994. p. 150. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 2, 2007. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
  5. ^ a b John Pike (May 13, 2010). "Mark 211 .50-caliber Multipurpose Ammunition". Globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
  6. ^ "Small Caliber Ammunition" (PDF). ATK. pp. 31–32. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
  7. ^ "St Petersburg Declaration 1868". International Humanitarian Law. International Committee of the Red Cross. Retrieved 2010-08-27.