Editing Catapult (section)

=== Military ===
[[File:French grenade catapult.jpg|left|thumb|200px|French troops using a catapult to throw [[hand grenade]]s and other explosives during [[World War I]]]]

The last large scale military use of catapults was during the [[trench warfare]] of [[World War I]]. During the early stages of the war, catapults were used to throw [[hand grenade]]s across [[no man's land]] into enemy trenches. They were eventually replaced by small [[Mortar (weapon)|mortars]].

The SPBG (Silent Projector of Bottles and Grenades) was a Soviet proposal for an anti-tank weapon that launched grenades from a spring-loaded shuttle up to {{convert|100|m|abbr=on}}.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.tankarchives.ca/2016/08/russian-piat.html | title=Russian PIAT }}</ref>

Special variants called [[aircraft catapult]]s are used to launch planes from land bases and sea carriers when the takeoff runway is too short for a powered takeoff or simply impractical to extend.<ref>{{cite book |title=A Dictionary of Aviation |first=David W. |last=Wragg |isbn=9780850451634 |edition=first |publisher=Osprey |year=1973 |page=87}}</ref> Ships also use them to launch torpedoes and deploy bombs against submarines.{{dubious|date=June 2016}}

In 2024, during the [[Gaza war]], a trebuchet created by private initiative of an [[Israel Defence Forces |IDF]] reserve unit was used to throw firebrands over the border into Lebanon, in order to set on fire the undergrowth which offered camouflage to [[Hezbollah]] fighters.<ref>[https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/14/middleeast/israel-catapult-trebuchet-lebanon-intl/index.html Israeli troops catapult fireball into Lebanon using weapon rarely used since 16th century], Benjamin Brown, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Paul Murphy and Christian Edwards for [[CNN]], posted & accessed June 14, 2024.</ref>