Materiel (pronounced muh-teer-ee-el)
(1) In
military use, arms, ammunition, and military equipment in general.
(2) The
aggregate of things used or needed in any business, undertaking, or operation
as distinguished from personnel (rare).
1814: A borrowing from the French matériel (equipment; hardware), from the Old French, from the Late Latin māteriālis (material, made of matter), from the Classical Latin māteria (wood, material, substance) from māter (mother). Ultimate source was the primitive Indo-European méhtēr (mother). Technically, materiel refers to supplies, equipment, and weapons in military supply chain management, and typically supplies and equipment only in a commercial context but it tends most to be used to describe military hardware and then to items specific to military use (ie not the office supplies etc used by armed forces personnel). Materiel is a noun; the noun plural is materiels.
Illustrating military materiel: Lindsay Lohan does Top Gun by BlueWolfRanger95 on Deviant Art. An aircraft is materiel as is a pilot's flight kit. Just about every piece of equipment in this photo would be classed as materiel except perhaps the aviator sunglasses (may be a gray area). Even non-combat, formal attire like dress shirts and ties are regarded by most military supply systems as materiel so materiel can be made from material.
Materiel is sometime notoriously, scandalously and even fraudulently expensive, tales of the Pentagon's purchase of US$1000 screwdrivers, toilet seats and such legion. Of late though, there have been some well-publicized economies, the US Navy's latest Virgina-class submarine using an Xbox controller for the operation of its periscope rather than the traditional photonic mast system and imaging control panel. The cost saving is approximately US$38,000 and there's the advantages (1) replacements are available over-the-counter at video game stores world-wide, (2) the young sailors operating the controller are almost all familiar with its feel and behavior and (3) the users report its much better to use than the heavy, clunky and less responsive standard device. In the military context, materiel refers either to the specific needs (excluding manpower) of a force to complete a specific mission, or the general sense of the needs (excluding personnel) of a functioning force. Materiel management is an all-encompassing term covering planning, organizing, directing, coordinating, controlling, and evaluating the application of resources to ensure the effective and economical support of military forces. It includes provisioning, storing, requirements determination, acquisition, distribution, maintenance, and disposal. In the military, the terms "materiel management", "materiel control", "inventory control", "inventory management", and "supply management" are synonymous.
DPRK personnel: DPRK female soldiers stepping out, seventieth anniversary military parade, Pyongyang, September 2018. Note the sensible shoes, an indication of the Supreme Leader’s thoughtfulness.
The French origins of materiel and personnel are usefully illustrative. The French matériel (the totality of things used in the carrying out of any complex art or technique (as distinguished from the people involved in the process(es))) is a noun use of the adjectival matériel and a later borrowing of the same word that became the more familiar noun material. By 1819, the specific sense of "articles, supplies, machinery etc. used in the military" had become established. The 1837 personnel (body of persons engaged in any service) is from the French personnel and was originally specific to the military, a contrastive term to materiel and a noun use of the adjectival personnel (personal), from the Old French personel.
DPRK materiel: Mock ups of the Pukguksong-5 SLBM displayed at military parade Thursday to mark the conclusion of the North Korea’s Workers’ Party congress (the first since 2016), Pyongyang, January 2021.
In January 2021, the DPRK (North Korea) included in a military parade, what appeared to be mock-ups of what’s described as the Supreme Leader’s latest submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), the supposedly new Pukguksong-5. Apparently, and predictably, an evolution of the Pukguksong-4 paraded a few months earlier, although retaining a similar 6 foot (1.8m) diameter, the payload shroud appeared about 28 inches (700mm) longer, suggesting the new SLBM’s estimated length is circa 35 feet (10.6m). Given the constraints of submarine launch systems, the dimensions are broadly in line with expectations but do hint the DPRK has yet to finalise a design for its next-generation SLBM. Nor have there been recent reports of the regime testing any big solid-rocket motors, this thought to confirm the views of Western analysts that development is in the early stages.
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