Bayonet

A bayonet is a blade that fixes to the muzzle of a rifle, turning a firearm into a short spear. It is the oldest piece of equipment in any modern soldier's kit by centuries, standardized in European armies by the 1690s, when it merged the musketeer and the pikeman into one soldier, and it refuses to fully die. Armies that field satellite-guided artillery still issue bayonets, which says something about what the weapon is actually for.

What it was, and what it is

For two centuries the bayonet charge was a real tactic, though even at its height the weapon killed less than its reputation suggested. Surgeons' records from Napoleonic and Civil War hospitals consistently show bayonet wounds as a small percentage of casualties. The charge worked psychologically: infantry advancing with fixed bayonets usually broke the defenders before contact, which is the point. The bayonet was always mostly a morale weapon, in both directions, steadying the soldier who carries it and unsettling the one facing it.

Documented bayonet actions continued into the 21st century, mostly close-quarters emergencies: British troops in Basra in 2004 and isolated engagements in Afghanistan. Militaries retain the weapon for exactly those situations, plus riot lines, prisoner handling, and the training value drill instructors defend fiercely, though the US Army dropped bayonet assault courses from basic training in 2010, and doctrinal attention keeps shrinking.

The hardware evolved into a multitool. A modern bayonet like the US M9 or Russian AK-74 type is a field knife first, with a wire-cutter formed by mating blade and scabbard, a saw spine, and a NATO-standard lug interface. Procurement treats it as a knife contract with a mounting requirement, and makers like Ontario Knife, KA-BAR, Glock, and Eickhorn have carried the recent contracts in the West.

Why keep issuing them at all?

Cost and consequence. A bayonet costs tens of dollars, lasts decades, and covers the rare scenario where a rifle stops being a firearm, jammed, empty, or too close, and the common scenario of needing a sturdy knife. Armies keep cheap insurance. The bayonet survives for the same reason the entrenching tool does: some soldier problems have not changed since the 1690s.