Weight: 3.6 kg
Length: 99 mm
Caliber: 5.56 mm
Rate of fire: Up to 950 rpm

The SAW entered the field in the mid-1980’s to fill in the gap caused by the retirement of the Browning Automatic Rifle 30 years earlier.

Primary function: 5.56 mm light machine gun for use in infantry squads

Weight:With bipod and tools, 15.16 pounds (6.88 kilograms); 200-round box magazine adds 6.92 pounds (3.14 kilograms); 30-round magazine adds 1.07 pounds (0.49 kilograms)

Maximum effective range:3,281 feet (1,000 meters)

Rate of fire:Cyclic, 725 rounds per minute; sustained, 85 rounds per minute

This automatic has a maximum range of 4.22 miles, and ammunition may be fed from the left or right side.

Factoid: The .50 caliber was used as a sniper weapon by US forces during the Vietnam War.

Length: 61.42 inches (156 centimeters)
Gun: 84 pounds (38 kilograms)
M3 Tripod (Complete): 44 pounds (19.98 kilograms)
Total: 128 pounds (58 kilograms)
Bore diameter: .50 inches (12.7mm)
Maximum effective range: 2000 meters with tripod mount
Maximum range: 4.22 miles (6.8 kilometers)

Though the M240G is designed as a mounted machine gun for tanks and light armored vehicles, it is modified for ground use by an infantry modification kit. The kit contains a flash suppressor, front sight, carrying handle for the barrel, buttstock, infantry length pistol grip, bipod and rear sight assembly. The M240G looks and feels a lot like the Vietnam-era M60 series machine guns it replaced, but the M240G's reliability is unparalleled. It's the standard issue medium machine gun for the Marine Corps, but the belt-fed, air-cooled weapon is also employed by US infantry units on the ground, in fighting vehicles and tanks; aboard vessels at sea and crafts in the air. The elite Army Rangers use the M240G as a reliable, deadly crew-served weapon.

Factoid: It can be fired from a bipod or from the shoulder, but the M240G is commonly discharged straight from the hip.

Length: 47.5 inches
Weight: 24.2 pounds
Bore diameter: 7.62 mm
Maximum effective range: 1.1 miles
Maximum range: 2.31 miles
Rate of fire (cyclic): 650-950 rounds per minute
Rate of fire (rapid): 200 rounds per minute
Rate of fire (sustained): 100 rounds per minute
Cost: $6,600

Factoid: The AK-47's inventor never earned a single ruble for the 100 million AKs in the world today. He didn't patent it.

Primary function: 7.62-mm assault rifle
Weight: 9.4 pounds (4.3 kilograms) with 30-round curved box magazine
Rate of fire: 100 rounds per minute/cyclic 600 rounds per minute
Effective range: 990 feet (300 meters)

Factoid: In the Mogadishu ambush, it was an RPG the Somalis used to down the Blackhawk.

Primary function: Shoulder fired anti-tank weapon
Weight: 15.2 pounds (6.9 kilograms)
Effective range: 1,640 feet (500 meters)
Rate of fire: Four to six rounds per minute
Ammunition: 85 mm grenade
Other features: Can penetrate 260 mm armor

Min. Range: 166 yds.
Kill radius: 70 yds.
Cannon Assembly: 110 lbs.
Bipod: 70 lbs.
Baseplate: 136 lbs.
Trailer: 399 lbs.

Maximum effective range: 5700 yds.
Minimum Range: 80 yds.
Length: 56 in.
Mortar Assembly: 35 pounds
Bipod: 26 pounds
Baseplate: 25.5 pounds
Sight Unit: 2.5 pounds

For all the technology and weaponry of the armed forces, it is a debilitating tactic. Even the toughest soldiers and the brightest engineers have difficulty combating the impact of hidden tape and electrical wire, 9-volt batteries, and old artillery casings. Remotely detonated with the ring of a cell phone or the ding of a doorbell, the IED kills and wounds troops and diverts funds and manpower from humanitarian and reconstruction efforts in Iraq. Deploying Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) specialists to disarm the weaponry, survey the sites, and research materials used in the IEDs has come with a price tag in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

So far, Explosive Ordnance Disposal technicians have destroyed 3.1 million pieces of artillery and 7.5 million pounds of explosives. But there are a staggering amount of IEDs still laying in wait. For every IED or car bomb that detonates, there are at least 20 others found by US troops that must be defused. And still, the Pentagon estimates 6 in 10 IEDs will go unnoticed before it is too late.

The IED detonation is sometimes followed by small arms attacks, but rebel forces are realizing IEDs alone may be the most effective weapon against convoys. Many of Iraq's roads are paved, four to eight lane highways that US forces use for high-speed movement. But the coalition traffic pattern is consistent, so enemies can easily predict the convoys' flow. Litter-strewn medians divide the lanes and provide the perfect cover for IEDs.

IEDs have been found in soda cans and ready-to-eat meal boxes as well as inside manholes, tunnels, and broken curbs, on telephone poles, and inside dead dogs and cows. They are crude, but IEDs are the insurgents' most efficient way to neutralize the battlefield from a distance, much like American forces use air power. To date, 40 to 60 percent of insurgent attacks involve an IED.

The supply of 155mm artillery shells is seemingly endless, even though weapons ammunition dumps are under surveillance. Most recently, analysts are concerned some of the 350 metric tons of high explosives reported missing from an Iraqi base may be used to make an untold number of IEDs.

In an effort to maximize the devastating blasts from IEDs, insurgents have begun packing the bombs with ball bearings, bolts, or any readily available shrapnel. Jammed with enough loose metal, the IED can shred the armor plating on a HMMWV. Using a daisy-chain, IEDs can be strung together to create multiple, simultaneous bombs a dozen yards long, creating an inescapable kill zone for coalition soldiers.

US military units have discovered IEDs containing mustard gas which, luckily, were improperly stored, rendering the poison ineffective. And just six months ago, a US convoy discovered a 155-millimeter artillery round converted to an IED. It looked like a typical makeshift bomb, but this one contained the nerve agent sarin.

As the means to kill increase, so do insurgent rewards. With stockpiles of cash, senior Ba'athists have offered to rebel fighters as much as $1,500 per dead soldier, and anyone who kills a bomb-squad technician gets $5,000, an amount it would take an Iraqi laborer 33 years to earn.

The M61 model has only 5.5 oz. of explosive, with a coil of serrated wire inside the body for fragmentation.

Weight: 14 oz.
Explosive: 6.5 oz., Composition B.