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.
A missile is an airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight aided usually by a propellant, jet engine or rocket motor.
A V-1 flying bomb, amongst the first guided missiles
A semi-active missile homing system
A Tomahawk cruise missile in flight
An Exocet Anti-ship missile in flight
