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{{Short description|Place where weaponry is made, stored, repaired etc}}
{{About||the London football club|Arsenal F.C.|all other uses|Arsenal (disambiguation)}}
{{Redirect2|Armoury|Armory}}
{{More citations needed|date=September 2014}}
[[File:View of the entrance to the Arsenal by Canaletto, 1732.jpg|thumb|''View of the Entrance to the [[Venetian Arsenal|Arsenal]]'', by [[Canaletto]], 1732]] 
[[File:Russia-Moscow-Arsenal.jpg|thumb|Cannons and mortars of [[Napoleon]]'s [[Grande Armée|army]] exhibited along the wall of the [[Kremlin Arsenal]]]]
[[Image:RoyalArmoryLeeds.JPG|thumb|[[Royal Armouries|The Royal Armoury]], [[Leeds]]]]
[[File:Armeria001.JPG|thumb|Armory of [[Swiss Guard]]]]
[[File:National Guard Armory (Concordia, Kansas).JPG|thumb|right|The [[Kansas Army National Guard]] [[National Guard Armory|armory]] in [[Concordia, Kansas]], is a typical building used for the National Guard programs in the United States.]]

An '''arsenal''' is a place where [[weapon|arms]] and [[ammunition]] are made, [[maintenance, repair, and operations|maintained and repaired]], stored, or issued, in any combination, whether [[Private property|privately]] or [[state-owned|publicly owned]]. '''''Arsenal''''' and '''''armoury''''' (British English) or '''''armory''''' (American English)<ref>Soanes, Catherine and Stevenson, Angus (ed.) (2005). ''Oxford Dictionary of English'', 2nd Ed., revised, Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York, p. 85. {{ISBN|978-0-19-861057-1}}.</ref><ref>The English barrister and heraldist [[Arthur Charles Fox-Davies]] meant that the spelling without a u was never used for weapons but only used for armory in the meaning of the science of coats of arms, which is a part of [[heraldry]], in his book ''[[The Art of Heraldry: An Encyclopædia of Armory]]'' (1904), p. 1</ref> are mostly regarded as synonyms, although subtle differences in usage exist.

A '''sub-armory''' is a place of temporary storage or carrying of weapons and ammunition, such as any temporary post or patrol vehicle that is only operational in certain times of the day.<ref>{{citation | title = Firearms | publisher = Idaho Department of Correction | url = http://www.idoc.idaho.gov/content/policy/876 | page = 2 | access-date = 2014-06-12 | date = 2010 | archive-date = 2016-12-24 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161224114130/https://www.idoc.idaho.gov/content/policy/876 | url-status = dead }}</ref>

==Etymology==
The term in English entered the language in the 16th century as a loanword from {{langx|fr|arsenal}}, itself deriving from the term {{langx|it|arsenale}}, which in turn is thought to be a corruption of {{langx|ar|دار الصناعة}}, {{Transliteration|ar|dār aṣ-ṣināʿa}}, meaning "manufacturing shop".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/arsenal |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716232558/http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/arsenal |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 16, 2012 |title=Definition of arsenal – Oxford Dictionaries (British & World English) |publisher=[[Oxford Dictionary of English]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/arsenal |title=Define Arsenal at Dictionary.com |publisher=[[Reference.com]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=arsenal |title=American Heritage Dictionary Entry: arsenal |publisher=[[The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=arsenal |title=Online Etymology Dictionary |publisher=[[Online Etymology Dictionary]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/arsenal |title=Definition of "arsenal" – Collins English Dictionary |publisher=[[Collins English Dictionary]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/arsenal |title=Arsenal – Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary |publisher=[[Merriam-Webster]]}}</ref>

==Types==
{{unsourcedsection|date=August 2025}}
A lower-class arsenal, which can furnish the [[materiel]] and equipment of a small army, may contain a laboratory, gun and carriage factories, and small-arms ammunition, small arms, harness, saddlery, tent and powder factories; in addition, it must possess great storehouses. In a second-class arsenal, the factories would be replaced by workshops. The situation of an arsenal should be governed by strategic considerations. If of the first class, it should be situated at the base of operations and supply, secure from attack, not too near a frontier, and placed so as to draw in readily the resources of the country. The importance of a large arsenal is such that its defences would be on the scale of those of a large [[fortress]].

In the early 21st century, the term "[[floating armoury]]" described a ship storing weapons to be supplied to merchant vessels in international waters subject to [[piracy]], so that the weapons do not enter territorial waters where they would be illegal.

''Arsenal'' usually describes 100 or more weapons or firearms.{{cn|date=August 2025}}

==Operational subdivision==

The branches in a great arsenal are usually subdivided into ''storekeeping'', ''construction'' and ''administration'':

* Under ''storekeeping'' the arsenal should have the following departments and stores: Departments of issue and receipt, pattern room, armoury department, ordnance or park, harness, saddlery and accoutrements, camp equipment, tools and instruments, engineer store, timber yard, breaking-up store, and unserviceable store.
* Under ''construction'': Gun factory, carriage factory, laboratory, small arms factory, harness and tent factory, gunpowder factory, etc. In a second-class arsenal there would be workshops instead of factories.
* Under the head of ''administration'' would be classed the chief director of the arsenal, officials military and civil, non-commissioned officers and military artificers, civilian foremen, workmen and laborers, with the clerks and writers necessary for the office work of the establishments.<ref name = EB1911>{{Source-attribution|sentence=yes|{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Arsenal |volume= 02 |pages = 650 to 651 }}}}</ref>

In the manufacturing branches are required skill, and efficient and economical work, both executive and administrative; in the storekeeping part, good arrangement, great care, thorough knowledge of all warlike stores, both in their active and passive state, and scrupulous exactness in the custody, issue and receipt of stores. [[Frederick Winslow Taylor|Frederick Taylor]] introduced [[Command and Control (Military)|command and control]] techniques to arsenals, including the U.S.'s [[Watertown Arsenal]] (a principal center for artillery design and manufacture) and [[Frankford Arsenal]] (a principal center for [[small arms]] ammunition design and manufacture).<ref name = EB1911/>

==See also==
* [[Armorer]]
* [[Arsenal Academy]]
* [[List of armouries in Canada]]
* [[List of arsenals of the Russian Armed Forces]]
* [[Magazine (artillery)]]
* [[Royal Armouries]] (UK)
* [[Zeughaus]] (Berlin)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Arsenals}}
{{wiktionary|arsenal}}
{{EB1911 poster|Arsenal}}
{{EB1911|wstitle=Arsenal}}

{{Weapons}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Military installations]]
[[Category:Arsenals| ]]