Munition is often defined as a synonym for ammunition.
A slightly broader definition would include bombs, missiles, warheads, and mines (landmines, naval mines, and claymore mines) -- what munitions factories manufacture. These munitions are flung all over battlefields and war zones with lethal intent; unexploded ones may pose a hazard to civilians for years afterwards.
The Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) contains no explosives itself; it attaches to a gravity bomb to make it into a smart bomb.
The Special Atomic Demolition Munition (SADM) was a man-portable nuclear weapon.
Encryption software may also be considered a munition. Until 1996, U.S. Government ITAR (International Trafficking in Arams Regulations) prohibited the export of anything stronger than 40-bit encryption. One man decided to become a munition himself!
The U.S. Department of State Directorate of Defense Trade Controls has published the United States Munitions List with 21 categories of munitions:
- Firearms, Close Assault Weapons and Combat Shotguns
- Guns and Armament
- Ammunition/Ordinance
- Launch Vehicles, Guided Missiles, Ballistic Missiles, Rockets, Torpedoes, Bombs, and Mines
- Explosives and Energetic Materials, Propellants, Incendiary Agents, and Their Constituents
- Vessels of War and Special Naval Equipment
- Tanks and Military Vehicles
- Aircraft and Associated Equipment
- Military Training Equipment
- Protective Personnel Equipment
- Military Electronics
- Fire Control, Range Finder, Optical and Guidance and Control Equipment
- Auxiliary Military Equipment
- Toxicological Agents, Including Chemical Agents, Biological Agents, and Associated Equipment
- Spacecraft Systems and Associated Equipment
- Nuclear Weapons, Design and Testing Related Items
- Classified Articles, Technical Data and Defense Services Not Otherwise Enumerated
- Directed Energy Weapons
- [Reserved]
- Submersible Vessels, Oceanographic and Associated Equipment
- Miscellaneous Articles
The Bible mentions "munition" in this general sense of "weapons of war": And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision. (Isaiah 29:7)