Grappling hook

A common design has a central shaft with a hole ("eye") at the shaft base to attach the rope, and three or four equally spaced hooks at the end, arranged so that at least one is likely to catch on some protuberance of the target. Some modern designs feature folding hooks to resist unwanted attachment. Grapple gun Most grappling hooks are thrown by hand, but some are propelled via compressed air, gunpowder, or rockets, either from dedicated grapple guns, or line throwers, such as the Plumett AL-52, or from conventional weapons, such as mortars, or guns with the appropriate muzzle device. == Applications ==

Entring (boarding) Traditionally, grappling hooks have been a tool of naval boarding, used to grapple the rigging or railing of enemy ships, and allow boarding parties to climb over. This tactic also transcends onto land, where it is used to climb over obstacles and for entering buildings. Historically there have been big boarding grapnels, swung from the rigging of ships, also known as boarding drags (, ). Grappling hooks were used by soldiers at the D-Day landings to aid in climbing the cliffs at the Normandy beaches. Some were rocket-propelled and launched from mortars. File:USMC-100427-M-3215R-002.jpg|Window entry via grappling hook File:Lagos49.jpg|Large boarding drag File:Grov änterdragg rigg.png|Illustration from a Swedish manual for a boarding drag (1698–1715) Clearance Grappling hooks are used by combat engineers to breach tactical obstacles. When used as such, the grappling hook is launched in front of an obstacle and dragged backwards to detonate tripwire-fused land mines, and can be hooked on wire obstacles and pulled to set off booby traps on the wire. A grapnel can clear up to 99% of the trip-wires in a single pass. The rifle-launched grapnel (LGH), a single-use grappling hook placed on the end of an M4/M16 rifle, is used for this purpose. A crossbow-launched version has also been produced. Snagging In World War I, the Russian pilot Alexander Kazakov once unsuccessfully attempted to use a grappling hook to bring down a German spy plane. During World War II British and German ships towed grappling hooks in the hope of snagging or damaging enemy submarines, a tactic also employed by the Japanese. Maritime As well as the grapnel anchor, grapnels are used in the removal and repair of subsea cables. Large cable layer ships drag huge grapnels across the seabed until they snag a cable. They typically have four evenly spaced hooks. File:Grapnel anchor in West Bengal.jpg|Grapnel anchor File:Chain grapnel.JPG|A chain grapnel – used to recover a cable from the seabed == In popular culture ==

Grappling hooks, grapple guns, and their many variants have been a staple in many video games, such as Bionic Commando or Assassin's Creed; as well as some cartoons like Phineas and Ferb. == See also ==