Every military power requires adequate firepower to rule out any aggression of an enemy force, and even if there is no attack or direct threat, firepower helps keeping the potential enemies at bay. For those, who are not well acquainted with the term “firepower”, it is essential to know that it means a range of weapons involving guns too. Today, there are many enthusiasts, who love to have a collection of these and flaunt them before visitors. Les Stein is one such enthusiast and Leslie Stein firepower collection has inspired many people to explore the history of firepower as most of the people are still ignorant about the same to a considerable extent.
What is firepower meant for?
Firepower is basically meant for an application from a considerable distance on the enemy forces. It has played a significant role in many combat situations for keeping the advance of enemy forces at a check so that they can be defeated easily or at least can be made weaker. Nowadays, due to increased use of air force and naval force, importance of firepower have reduced a bit, but still it is matchless.
History of firepower
It is said that the earliest form of firepower may be the slingers used by ancient armies across the world. It was a kind of projectile weapon with a loop by which any heavy or blunt projectile can be forced upon the enemy forces from a distance. Inexpensive, such slingers were used during combat operations as well as during recreational hunting by ancient people. Slingers or sling has got a mention in the Greek literature work too by Homer and has been found in many excavations in Egypt.
The bows and arrows thereafter emerged as the most powerful firepower and remained so among the Huns, Romans, Sarmatians, etc. The bow was mostly asymmetrical and arrows were carried on the back in a quiver. It was in the 16th Century when use of guns became widespread in Europe and as the loading time was too long, the guns are modified and made apt for delivering high accuracy rate. Had the guns were not invented the warfare scene would have remained dominated by swords, spears, arrows and bows largely.
It is believed that even in the 14th Century, army personnel were well aware of the use of guns as in an ancient manuscript dated 1326 one can find the picture of a gun. However, wars become deadly gradually and modern guns and cannons becomes an integral part of the artillery. The rise of gunpowder has an immense role to play in the popularity of these guns or modern firepower. In the modern times, some of the most popular firepower examples are sniper rifles, machine guns, grenade launchers, anti-tank, automatic rifles and so on.
The swords are still used, but mainly for ceremonial purpose in some Asian countries like India and Japan. Certainly, the history is a long, fascinating one and inspiring to have a collection like that of Les Stein Firepower as soon as possible.
