About

The Open Source Munitions Portal is a tool for researchers, journalists and practitioners trying to learn more about munitions and their use and impact in conflicts. It was launched at King’s College, London, on November 23rd, 2023 – the panel discussion is available here.

The portal has multiple functions. The hundreds of verified images in the archive serve as a searchable reference library of munitions, mostly from the war in Ukraine. Each image is accompanied by a munition category, a number of tags describing the visual characteristics of the munition and some details about where and when it was documented.

The resources page provides visual and written explainers of key munition categories, as well as a full glossary of terms.

The classify page includes a visual questionnaire that will help you reach tentative conclusions about what category of munition a weapon is.

The portal was designed and devised by non-profit civilian harm watchdog Airwars and Armament Research Services (ARES), a technical intelligence consultancy specialised in munitions. It was created with web developers Rectangle. The project was supported by the Google News Initiative and the Reva and David Logan Foundation.

All images in this portal come from active conflict zones, mostly Ukraine. The portal currently only contains images of explosive munitions.

While all images were reviewed by munitions experts, all identifications through the tool will always be tentative – rather than exact. Munition development and delivery remains a rapidly evolving field where munitions are regularly adapted and deployed in ways that munitions experts and affected communities cannot fully know. Users should never approach munition remnants.

Many of the images in this portal have been sourced from social media and republished under fair use. If you own a particular image and wish for it to be taken down, please email osmp@airwars.org

This tool was designed to be of use for as many open source researcher as possible. As such, we are always looking to develop and improve. If you have particular constructive feedback, we would love to hear from you. Please email osmp@airwars.org