HALO acts as a service provider in the disposal of unwanted small arms and light weapons. Weapons collections are usually organised by the national authorities.
The weapons are normally registered by HALO, certified by police or military officials, and then disposed of by HALO personnel. HALO uses hydraulic shears to destroy large stocks of small arms and light weapons and power saws for smaller quantities.
HALO has developed its own weapons cutting shear which can be towed behind a Landrover, that has the capacity to chop more than 500 weapons per day. This allows HALO to take the shears out to remote villages and thus gives it a unique opportunity to conduct weapons cutting in the most transparent fashion which can be a crucial element to garnering the support of the general public.
So far HALO has chopped up more than 125,000 Small Arms and Light Weapons, it has sent weapons teams to every province in Angola and has been commissioned to train the Mozambican Police Force in weapons disposal techniques.