The US Marine Corps' OKC-3S bayonet

From right to left: a carbine, a straight infantry officer sabre, a short curved infantry sabre ("briquet"), two bayonets.

A bayonet is a knife- or dagger-shaped weapon designed to fit on or over the muzzle of a rifle or similar weapon. It is a close combat weapon. United States Marine Corps Emblem The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is the second smallest of the five branches of the United States armed forces, with 170,000 active and 40,000 reserve Marines as of 2002. ... A carbine is a firearm, similar to, but shorter or weaker than an ordinary rifle or musket of a given period. ... For other uses, see Sabre (disambiguation). ... Bayonet OKC_3S _ Ontario Knife Company. ... traditional Norse knife A knife is a sharp-edged hand tool used for cutting. ... For the typographical mark, see dagger (typography). ... A weapon is a tool used to kill or incapacitate a person or animal, or destroy a military target. ... A muzzle can be: The mouth of a firearm, see firearm muzzle The projecting nose of an animal, see animal muzzle An arrangement of straps used to bind an animal muzzle shut, or otherwise prevent it from biting. ... A rifle is any long gun which has a rifled barrel. ... A weapon is a tool used to kill or incapacitate a person or animal, or destroy a military target. ...

Its evolution can be traced to a certain extent to a fortuitous accident. In the mid-17th century irregular conflicts of rural France, the peasants of the Southern French town of Bayonne, having run out of powder and shot, rammed their long-bladed hunting knives into the muzzles of their primitive muskets to fashion impromptu spears, and by necessity created an ancillary weapon that was to influence Western European infantry tactics until the early 20th century. (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... View of Grand Bayonne across the Adour For other uses, see Bayonne (disambiguation). ... This article is about the hunting of prey by human society. ... A musket is a muzzle-loaded, smooth-bore long gun. ... A spear is an ancient weapon, used for hunting and war. ... Western Europe is distinguished from Eastern Europe by differences of history and culture rather than by geography. ... Infantry in the First World War Infantry (or Infantrymen) are soldiers who fight primarily on foot, using personal weapons. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the...

The benefit of such a dual-purpose arm contained in one was soon apparent. The early muskets fired at a slow rate (about a round per minute when loading with loose powder and ball), and were unreliable. Bayonets provided a useful addition to the weapon-system when an enemy charging to contact could cross the musket's killing ground (a range of approx 100 yards/metres at the most optimistic) at the expense of perhaps only one volley from their waiting opponents. A foot long bayonet (extending to a regulation 17 inches (approx 43 centimetres) during the Napoleonic period, on a 6 foot (almost 2 meter) tall musket achieved a reach similar to the infantry spear, and later halberd, of earlier times. A musket is a muzzle-loaded, smooth-bore long gun. ... Gunpowder is a substance which burns very rapidly and is used as a propellant in firearms. ... To help compare different orders of magnitude this page lists lengths between 100 m and 1 km. ... (Redirected from 1 E 1 m) To help compare different orders of magnitude this page lists lengths between 10 m and 100 m. ... For other uses, see Napoleon (disambiguation). ...

Early bayonets were of the "plug" type. The bayonet had a round handle that fit directly into the musket barrel. This naturally prevented the gun from being fired.

Later "socket" bayonets offset the blade from the muzzle. The bayonet attached over the outside of the barrel with a ring-shaped socket, secured on later models by a spring-loaded catch on the muzzle of the musket barrel. Hugh Mackay, a British general, is often credited with this innovation. Hugh Mackay Hugh Mackay (c. ...

Many socket bayonets were triangular in order to provide sideways stability of the blade without much increase in weight. This design of bayonet did not include a handle to use the blade apart from the gun. 18th and 19th century military tactics included various massed bayonet charges and defences. The British Army was particularly known for its bayonet use, although towards the early 19th century and the flowering of Napoleonic warfare, the primacy of regular and speedy volley-fire saw the British eclipse their opponents in line to line infantry combat. (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... The British Army is the land armed forces of the United Kingdom. ...

In the Geneva Accords on Humane Warfare, triangular and cross-sectional bayonets were outlawed because the wounds they produce do not close easily, and were said to be inhumane, though such designs are, despite this, not uncommon even today.

A late 19th century Prussian bayonet

Most modern bayonets have a fuller (visible on the top half of the blade shown above), which is a concave depression in the blade designed to reduce the weight and increase the stiffness of the blade. Some speculate that this design feature makes a bayonet easier to withdraw after a stabbing attack by allowing air into the wound it produces, but in fact fullers have not been experimentally shown to have such an effect. The coat of arms of the Kingdom of Prussia, 1701-1918 The word Prussia ( German: Preußen or Preussen, Polish: Prusy, Lithuanian: Prūsai, Latin: Borussia) has had various (often contradictory) meanings: The land of the Baltic Prussians (in what is now parts of southern Lithuania, the Kaliningrad exclave of Russia and...

Even in modern warfare, bayonets are still used as weapons because, although most combat occurs at a distance, troops are always required to close with an enemy to "mop-up". A bayonet also remains useful as a utility knife, and as an aid to combat morale. Despite the limitations of the bayonet, it is still issued in most armies and most armies still train with them. The modern sawback U.S. M9 Bayonet, officially adopted in 1984, is issued with a special sheath designed to double as a wire cutter, a design taken from Polish Ak-74 bayonet designs. Some production runs of the M9 have a fuller and some do not, depending upon which contractor manufactured that batch and what the military specs were at the time. The M9 Bayonet replaces the M7 Bayonet of the 1960s, but many troops have retained the M7, since the M9 has a reputation for breakage, again due to the various contractors used. As of summer 2004, the US Marine Corps is also issuing small quantities of new bayonets of a different design from the M9, with an 8" Bowie knife-style blade and no fuller, manufactured by Ontario Knife Company of Ontario, New York. This new bayonet, the OKC-3S is cosmetically similar to the Marines' famed Ka-bar fighting knife. 119 00:30, 28 Jan 2005 (UTC) Categories: Possible copyright violations ... This article is about utility in economics and in game theory. ... Morale measures the degree to which people hold to belief. ... Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s - 1960s - 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s Years: 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 Events and trends The 1960s was a turbulent decade of change around the world. ... A Bowie knife is commonly used in modern times to refer to any large sheath knife. ... For other locations with this name, see ONTARIO. Ontario is a town located in Wayne County, New York. ... A Ka-bar is the 7-inch fighting and utility knife used by the US Marines in World War II, and has been carried into battle by generations of Marines since. ...

Modern bayonets are often knife-shaped with handles and a socket, or permanently attached to the rifle as with the SKS. Depending on where and when a specific SKS was manufactured, it may have a permanently attached bayonet with a knife-shaped blade (Russian, Romanian, Yugoslavian, early Chinese), or a cruciform (late Chinese) or triangular (Albanian) spike-style bayonet of the type outlawed by the Geneva Accords, or no bayonet at all. The SKS is a Russian semi-automatic rifle, designed in 1945 by Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov. ... The SKS is a Russian semi-automatic rifle, designed in 1945 by Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov. ... Romania (formerly spelled Rumania or Roumania; Romanian: România) is a country in southeastern Europe. ... Yugoslavia (Jugoslavija in all south Slavic languages) is a term used for three separate but successive political entities that existed during most of the 20th century on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe. ... The Great Wall of China, stretching over 6,700 km, was erected beginning in the 3rd century BC to guard the north from raids by men on horses. ... Albania is a Mediterranean country in southeastern Europe. ... The word spike The word spike can refer to: An Israel-developed guided anti-tank missile spike (missile). ...

The push-twist motion of fastening the modern bayonet has given name to several connectors and contacts including the bayonet-fitting light bulb that is standard in the UK (as opposed to the continental screw-fitting type), and the BNC ("Bayonet Neill-Concelman") RF connector. The incandescent light bulb uses a glowing wire filament heated to white-hot by electrical resistance, to generate light (a process known as thermal radiation). ... The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a country in western Europe, and a member of the European Union. ... BNC can refer to one of the following: A BNC connector, a type of cable jack. ... A radio frequency connector is an electrical connector designed to work at radio frequencies. ...