An important intelligence role is to discover illegal weapons and explosives before they can be used by terrorists or insurgents.

The recovery by Security Forces of smuggled, illegally-held commercial weaponry, like the AK variant assault rifle at the back of the photo, often leads to terrorist groupings developing their own home-made 'improvised' weapons.

The small mortar, fired by a shotgun cartridge, was recovered from Loyalist terrorists during a search in Northern Ireland during the 'Troubles'.

The home-made pistol and 'zip gun' were recovered from Republican terrorist groups, also in Northern Ireland.