Infantry in the Middle Ages heavy toll on the English invaders of their lands. Adapted by the English, the longbow was nevertheless a difficult weapon to master, requiring long years of use and practice. Even bow construction was extended, sometimes taking as much as four years for seasoned staves to be prepared and shaped for final deployment. A skilled longbowman could shoot 12 arrows a minute, a rate of fire superior to competing weapons like the crossbow or early gunpowder weapons. The nearest competitor to the longbow was the much more expensive crossbow or Arbalest, used often by urban militias and mercenary forces. It required
Rifleman's Assault Weapon a range of 300 meters. The RAW was considered to be ideal for the conditions of urban warfare. Reconsideration by the U.S. military as to what kind of close support weapon they were seeking resulted in only limited procurement of the RAW, despite the weapon performing to specification and displaying a remarkably flat trajectory to a range of 300 meters. Brunswick Corporation also developed an antitank version of the RAW. Brunswick later sold the design for the RAW to KDI Precision Products, Inc., which became part of L-3 Communications in 2001. Rifleman's Assault Weapon The Rifleman's Assault Weapon (also called