Bows are still used in the military, but not the way they were a thousand years ago. No armed force issues bows or crossbows to regular infantry, and none has for centuries. What survives is a narrow, deliberate role for the crossbow inside special operations, commando, and jungle-warfare units in at least a half-dozen countries, where silence and the absence of muzzle flash solve problems a firearm cannot.
Which Militaries Still Keep Crossbows
The list of armed forces that maintain crossbows for operational use is longer than most people expect, and these aren’t ceremonial holdovers. They’re issued kit for specific tactical jobs.
- China. The People’s Liberation Army uses crossbows at multiple unit levels, including the Snow Leopard Commando Unit of the People’s Armed Police. PLA special forces train with crossbows for nighttime hostage rescue and sentry elimination, valuing the lack of muzzle flash or gunshot noise.1Global Times. PLA Special Forces Unit Practices Nighttime Hostage Rescue Mission
- Spain. The Green Berets of the Spanish military still include crossbows in their equipment.
- Greece and Turkey. Special forces in both countries continue to train with and deploy crossbows.
- Serbia. Serbian special forces used crossbows during the Kosovo War for ambushes and as a counter-sniper tool.
- Peru. The Peruvian Army equips some soldiers with crossbows and rope to shoot lines across rivers and ravines and establish zip-lines across difficult terrain.
- Brazil. The Jungle Warfare Training Center (CIGS) trains soldiers in crossbow use as part of its jungle operations curriculum.
- India. The Marine Commando Force was equipped until the late 1980s with crossbows fitted with cyanide-tipped bolts, used as an alternative to suppressed handguns for covert operations.
The common thread is that crossbows fill gaps where firearms create problems. No military is putting them in the hands of regular infantry.
Why Crossbows Instead of a Suppressed Rifle
A crossbow persists in special operations for three practical reasons, and each is something a firearm handles poorly even with a suppressor and subsonic ammunition.
The first is genuine silence. A suppressed firearm is quieter than an unsuppressed one, but it isn’t silent. The mechanical action, the supersonic crack of standard rounds, and the muzzle report all produce detectable noise. A suppressed firearm still produces roughly 130 to 140 decibels; an unsuppressed rifle produces about 165. A crossbow produces almost none. During nighttime raids or hostage rescues, where a single gunshot could trigger a firefight or cause a hostage-taker to react, that gap matters.
The second is the absence of spark or flash. When the target is wearing an explosive vest or standing near volatile material, a firearm discharge creates a real detonation risk. Chinese military doctrine specifically cites this scenario as justification for crossbow training. A bolt delivers lethal force without any ignition source.
The third is utility beyond killing. Peruvian and other jungle-warfare units shoot crossbow bolts trailing lines across rivers and ravines to build zip-lines. The weapon becomes a delivery tool, and it does the job more quietly and precisely than the alternatives.
The Vietnam “Crossbow War”
The most extensive modern integration of archery weapons into military operations happened during the Vietnam War, though not in the way most people picture it. U.S. Army Special Forces operating in the Central Highlands worked closely with the Montagnard people, indigenous tribes who hunted with crossbows and knew the jungle intimately. Green Beret teams integrated Montagnard crossbowmen directly into strike teams for ambushes and patrols. The crossbow’s silence made it ideal for eliminating sentries without alerting larger enemy forces nearby.
American personnel referred to this phase of operations as the Crossbow War because of how central the Montagnard fighters and their weapons became to special forces tactics in the region. The crossbows weren’t American-issued equipment brought from stateside armories. They were indigenous weapons wielded by indigenous allies who had used them for generations, and the Green Berets built operations around that capability.
The Last Confirmed Bow Kill in Combat
The most famous modern instance of a bow used in battle belongs to Lieutenant Colonel Jack Churchill of the British Army, who carried a longbow and a Scottish broadsword throughout World War II. During the 1940 retreat to Dunkirk, Churchill killed a German soldier with an arrow at the Battle of l’Épinette near Béthune, France, in what is almost certainly the last confirmed bow kill in conventional warfare.2Historic UK. Fighting Jack Churchill He reportedly favored the bow for its silence and accuracy at distances up to 200 yards. Churchill went on to lead commando raids armed with his longbow and broadsword, capturing dozens of German prisoners.
Churchill was an eccentric outlier, not a sign that bows had any remaining role in conventional infantry combat. But his preference for the weapon points at the same trait that keeps crossbows in special forces arsenals today: silence.
Bows in Military Survival Training
Outside of combat and special operations, archery shows up in military survival courses. Programs like the U.S. military’s SERE training (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape) teach service members how to sustain themselves with minimal equipment if they’re cut off from supply lines or captured behind enemy lines. Crafting improvised weapons for hunting, including bows, is part of that curriculum.
The point isn’t to create skilled archers. It’s to give personnel the ability to procure food in wilderness environments where resupply isn’t coming. Building a simple bow, fashioning arrows from available materials, and taking small game is a genuine survival skill, and the training also builds the kind of self-reliance military survival schools prioritize.
How Bows Actually Compare to Modern Firearms
The technical comparison is stark in most categories and closer than expected in a few. A medieval English war longbow had a maximum range of roughly 200 to 400 yards. A modern M4 carbine has an effective range of about 500 meters and a maximum range well beyond that. Handguns close the gap somewhat: a standard-issue Beretta M9 has an effective range of only about 50 meters.
Rate of fire is where the numbers surprise people. A trained longbowman could manage 10 to 12 aimed shots per minute, and the best archers reached 30. That is comparable to the sustained fire rate of a semi-automatic rifle at 12 to 15 aimed rounds per minute. The gap widens dramatically with automatic weapons, which can fire 30 rounds in two seconds.
The real problem for the bow isn’t rate of fire. It’s penetration, range, and training time. Modern body armor stops arrows easily, and no amount of archery skill overcomes the range and lethality of rifle cartridges at distance. A competent military archer historically required years of dedicated physical conditioning and practice. A service member can reach basic rifle proficiency in weeks. That single factor probably did more to end military archery than any other.
Bows haven’t been relevant to general combat in centuries, and nothing suggests that will change. Their niche survival in special operations, jungle warfare, and counter-terrorism training simply shows that even ancient technology doesn’t fully disappear when it solves a problem nothing else can. As long as silence and zero flash matter in specific tactical scenarios, crossbows will keep showing up in military arsenals.