There are some guns which all-out action movies are not complete without, and the destructive M134 Minigun is one of them. Having six barrels firing up to 6,000 rounds a minute probably helps this reputation. This gun was first commissioned for the Vietnam War, and was mounted on planes, helicopters and occasionally boats to devastate the Viet Cong forces with its sustained fire. Its main drawback were the limited use - it was far too heavy for infantry to carry it, and relied on an external supply of electricity. This means that movie-style charges wielding the M134 were sadly unrealistic, especially due to the high recoil energy - the handheld version in Predator, for example, could not be held for long. Designed by General Electric in 1960 this fires .308 Winchester cartridges for maximum penetration. This gun means business.

In recent decades, warfare has changed dramatically to suit the most recent technologies and tactics.

But despite advances in technology and the ongoing arms race one fact remains - guns are still the defacto means of arming soldiers, and that doesn't look set to change any time in the near future. Many firearms and cartridges can trace their lineage back over a hundred years which just goes to show that if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Different countries will always have different views on how to arm their troops - here are just a few that can be seen in a war near you....

Expert soldier Benjamin Willard is given a mission in the forests of Cambodia: to locate and kill Colonel Kurtz, a traitor. With the rest of his crew, including Kilgore and his helicopter unit, Willard heads off down the Nung River. They are persistently attacked by concealed forces hiding in the forest, resulting in multiple casualties. Struggling in the midst of this disastrous assignment, at the moment when all seems lost, Willard is captured and taken to Kurtz's village. The US soldier is tied up, and the bloody head of one of his colleagues is shown to him, much to his disgust. Will he be killed in the same way? "Everyone gets everything he wants. I wanted a mission, and for my sins, they gave me one.

The Predator is an extraterrestrial life-form far more advanced than anything seen before on the Earth. It trails the special forces under the command of Major "Dutch", on their mission to rescue important hostages from Guatemalan soldiers. Upon arrival, they find a destroyed helicopter and dead soldiers, and locate a rebel base which they then attack. Suddenly, the predator arrives; it hunts each team member, and kills them one by one. The battle between the American forces and the all-supreme Predator is insanely tense. From grenade launchers to shotguns, machine guns to rifles, this movie has it all... and the Predator's plasma gun is more than a match for the human weapons.