Infantry Weapons

Infantry weapons fall into six families: standard assault rifle (5.56 mm NATO or 7.62×39 mm Russian — the squad-level weapon), squad automatic weapon (light machine gun in 5.56 or 7.62), general-purpose machine gun (7.62×51 or PKM 7.62×54R), sniper / precision (7.62, .338, .50 BMG), grenade launchers (40 mm or 84 mm recoilless), and anti-tank guided weapons (ATGM — Javelin, NLAW, Kornet, Spike). In recent years the NGSW (Next Generation Squad Weapon) revolution has set a trend toward heavier calibers (.277 Fury / 6.8 × 51 mm Common Cartridge) to defeat Level-7 body armor — Sig Sauer XM7 and XM250 won the US Army's 2022 tender. ATGMs have become the equalizer of the modern battlefield against modern MBTs. Top-attack mode (Javelin, NLAW, Spike LR2) avoids the heavy frontal armor by climbing above the target and then diving into the weaker top armor. Tandem warheads (two sequential explosions) defeat ERA armor by first blowing off the ERA tile and then driving the main warhead through the exposed RHA. Wire-guided (Kornet) vs fire-and-forget (Javelin, Spike, NLAW): the former tethers the gunner to the system but is cheaper; the latter lets the gunner take cover after launch.