French Naval Cannon - Late 19th Century CE, Terra, Sol System
Artillery is a class of military weapons built to fire munitions far beyond the range of infantry's small arms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach fortifications, and led to heavy, fairly immobile siege engines. As technology improved, lighter, more mobile field artillery developed for battlefield use. This development continues today; modern self-propelled artillery vehicles are highly mobile weapons of great versatility providing the largest share of an army's total firepower.
Since the introduction of gunpowder and cannon, the word "artillery" has largely meant cannon and in contemporary usage it usually refers to shell-firing guns, howitzers, mortars and rockets. In common speech, the word artillery is often used to refer to individual devices along with their accessories and fittings, although these assemblages are more properly called "equipments". However, there is no generally recognized generic term for a gun, howitzer, mortar, and so forth: the United States used "artillery piece", but most English speaking armies use "gun" and "mortar". The projectiles fired are typically either "shot" (if solid) or "shell" if not. "Shell" is a widely used generic term for a projectile, which is a component of munitions. By association, artillery may also refer to the arm of service that customarily operates such engines.
Etymology[]
The word as used in the current context originated in the Middle Ages. One suggestion is that it comes from the Old French atellier, meaning "to arrange", and attillement, meaning "equipment".
From the 13th century CE an artillier referred to a builder of any war equipment; and, for the next 250 years, the sense of the word "artillery" covered all forms of military weapons. Hence, the naming of the Honourable Artillery Company an essentially infantry unit until the 19th century CE. Another suggestion is that it comes from the Italian arte de tirare (art of shooting) coined by one of the first theorists on the use of artillery, Niccolo Tartaglia.
History[]
Mechanical systems used for throwing ammunition in ancient warfare, also known as "engines of war", like the catapult, onager, trebuchet, and ballista, are also referred to by military historians as artillery.