The bayonet will continue to serve until the government or miltary considers it obsolete. But hell, that will never happen. The military is funding money for stealth, so hand fighting might become obsolete. I doubt it.

The bayonet was used this year by British forces in Iraq, a patrol of one of the Scottish Regiments had been pinned down by heavy fire. A section of the troop made a flanking movement and got amongst them using their bayonets. There were complaints from people that visit the scene of this battle over the numbers of Iraqis that had been killed by the bayonet.

Originally Posted by LIBERTY

I know alittle about bayonet fighting. But I would really like to meet the man who came up with the idea of putting a knife on a barrel of a rifle!

Well, at one time, rifles were longer than a man was tall and took a long time to reload. See the reasoning?

I always found a shovel a great and effective weapon for close combat fighting, you could part some ones hair right down to there chin with it.