Small Arms and Light Weapons

Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) is a term used in arms control protocols to refer to two main classes of weapons:

The U.S. Army defines small arms/light weapons (SA/LW) as: "Handguns, shoulder-fired weapons, light automatic weapons up to and including 12.7mm machine guns, recoilless rifles up to and including 106mm, mortars up to and including 81mm, man-portable rocket launchers, rifle-/shoulder-fired grenade launchers, and individually operated weapons that are portable or can be fired without special mounts or firing devices and that have potential use in civil disturbances and are vulnerable to theft."