Mk 153 Shoulder-Launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon
The Mk 153 Shoulder-Launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon (SMAW) is a smoothbore shoulder-fired rocket launcher. It is a portable assault weapon and has a secondary anti-armor ability. Developed from the B-300, it was introduced to the United States Armed Forces in 1984. It has a maximum effective range of 500 metres (550 yd) against a tank-sized target.
Nammo Tally displaying the Serpent at Modern Day Marine 2010
View showing sight
Two SMAW teams
A training round is fired
Shoulder-fired missile, shoulder-launched missile or man-portable missile, among other variants, are common slang-terms to describe high-caliber shoulder-mounted weapons systems – that is: weapons firing large heavy projectiles ("missiles"), typically using the backblast principle, which are small enough to be carried by a single person and fired while held on one's shoulder. The word "missile" in this context is used in its original broad sense of a heavy projectile, and encompasses all shells and rockets, guided or unguided. A more formal variant is simply shoulder-fired weapons system and the like.
Shoulder-launched weapons avoid the problem of recoil by directing all exhaust out of the rear of the launch tube, the so-called backblast principle.
An American-Bulgarian team prepares to reload an RPG-7 shoulder-fired rocket launcher with a fresh rocket and booster charge.
AT4 single-use disposable antitank launcher, a smoothbore recoilless gun pre-loaded with a HEAT-FS projectile and a fixed propellant casing.
Polish soldiers prepare to fire PZR Grom MANPADS.
