The whole history of earthly civilization is marked by wars.At all stages of development, man has created and continues to create weapons. Some samples are amazing characteristics, capabilities and harsh aesthetics, and some seem completely ridiculous. To describe all the most unusual weapons ever invented by man is simply impossible. First, everyone has their own ideas about normality and strangeness, and secondly, progress does not stand still, and what had recently seemed like a formidable death machine could be perceived by subsequent generations as a pile of useless iron.
Поэтому мы не будем пытаться составить рейтинг, а just consider a few of the most unusual examples, both existing in reality and hardened in battle, and prototypes that are not implemented.
Before discussing the most unusual weapons,Let us mention the demands that master gunsmiths and soldiers put forward. The main ones are reliability, destructive power, safety for the shooter. If we are talking about wearable weapons, weight and dimensions are important. Depending on the type, parameters such as effective range, damage radius, rate of fire of the ammunition, convenience and ease of charging, the number of crew and crew are estimated.
Modern weapons companies, especially those working for the state defense industry, strive not only to develop the best performance characteristics, but also to reduce production costs.
Therefore, among professionals in the categorystrange weapons are either too heavy and large for modest characteristics, or prohibitively expensive to manufacture and maintain, or unsuitable for real combat missions for various reasons.
The man in the street can consider it even odd appearance. A pair of copies with excellent performance characteristics, but very much an unusual design fell into our review.
The heyday of the era of unusual weapons have always beenperiods of wars. The need for new non-standard solutions, austerity, a limited time frame, lack of necessary, partially compensated by the available material and unsuitable trophies - often these factors are the main motivators.
During the Second World War urgentlyIt was created a lot of fundamentally new weapons. The best minds on both sides of the front worked diligently in this direction. It is difficult to name the most unusual weapons of the Second World War, but some specimens certainly deserve attention.
The German “Dora” with a mass of 1250 amazes with its powertons and a height of 11.5 m. The gun was delivered to the disassembled position on the rails, assembled for several days on the spot, and for the shot, the efforts of 250 crew members and ten times more of the serving group were required. But "Dora" could release a projectile weighing from 4.8 to 7 tons! She had to fight only twice: in Warsaw (1942) and near Sevastopol (1944). The Wehrmacht managed to create two samples and about a thousand shells.
Even a huge striking effect could not compensate for all the difficulties and costs. Especially since the SAU, MLRS and aviation handle this task.
Strange can be recognized and the American tankChrysler, developed in the 50s. True, it did not go beyond the prototype. According to the developers, Chrysler was supposed to float and even shoot straight out of the water, and his work was based on the use of an atomic engine. The huge molded body of an egg shape looks more amusing than threatening.
Creativity showed and Soviet gunsmiths.It is worth mentioning the tank-aircraft, aircraft-carrier and tractor-tank. None of these inventions were included in the mass production, but armored tractors had to go through the baptism of all in the same World War II.
Quite a formidable, albeit bulky weapon.German army was "Goliath" - self-propelled mine. "Goliath" had weak armor, the control wire was not protected at all, and the maximum speed did not reach even 10 km / h. At the same time, production required considerable expenses. It was risky to control a bulky self-propelled gun, and sometimes the enemy’s engineering thought also reached incredible levels.
Here at least mortar-shovel! The curb weight of the gun reached only one and a half kg, and a 37-caliber projectile fired from it could cover a distance of 250 m.
Having finished shooting, the artilleryman could easilyturn the device into an ordinary soldier's spatula. In the airborne troops, this weapon was used until the end of the war. Perhaps mortar-shovel and became the cause of terrible legends about the Russian paratroopers?
4-Barreled Revolver - Notone of a kind. Listing the most unusual weapons, it is impossible to deprive attention of multi-barreled inventions common in the XVII-XIX centuries. But you have to admit, the look of these pistols and revolvers is awesome.
Многим кажется довольно странным бельгийский automatic FN-F2000, which has excellent rifle performance, but for some reason also differs remarkable aerodynamics. A person accustomed to the AK or M-16, looking at him, does not immediately understand how to take him to the correct position for firing.
The old comfrey will probably be puzzledand such a phenomenon that is widespread among the mafia groups of Latin America as designer AKs. Covered with inlaid, richly carved and even gilded weapons in the environment and today is an indicator of status. However, this does not detract from the combat characteristics.
The experience of the gunsmiths of the past inspires andtoday's engineers. But modern designers are trying to increase the number of barrels, and ammunition. There are many examples of this: multiply shotguns, an ammunition supply system for the Scorpion PC, twin and spiral drums.
Самое необычное оружие можно искать не только на battlefields. Militiamen also sometimes resort to non-standard solutions. For example, the Israeli development "Thunder Generator". A device designed to break up demonstrations and suppress the enemy. It strikes at a distance of 150 meters without harming health. However, the calculation at the time of the shot, too, is not easy. Even more strange can be called "gag gun", sending pulses and pulsating rays. The result of exposure is general weakness, nausea, and even vomiting.
Not all weapons are like weapons.This category includes many items. The most unusual weapons, disguised as stationery, canes, rings, buckles and other items, today use the special services.
Sunny India gave the world not only"Kama Sutra" and yoga, but also many samples of amazing weapons. For example, urumi has no analogues in the world. You can gird yourself with this thin sharp steel sword. In battle, the sword belt is rather formidable.
From there, pata comes - a sword with a protective glove attached to the guard.
Самое необычное холодное оружие из Японии – текко kagi, which means "tiger claws". It may seem that the shape of the weapon is too unusual, and this subject is more like a prop for a movie about superheroes. How can you not remember about Wolverine? But with the help of Tekko Kagi, the warrior of the Land of the Rising Sun could easily tear the flesh of the enemy onto rags and even repel sword blows. By the way, the analogue of metal claws was familiar to the ancient Kshatriyas.
It can be said that Qatar, which combines the features of brass knuckles and a knife, and even with a blade that is sliding into three parts, is the most unusual cold weapon. But in the modern world a lot of its analogues. A knife fight specialist is unlikely to take such a weapon seriously, but among street gangs the knife-knuckle is common.
In some ancient peoples, an even more unusual knife was worn on the finger. It was used not only in fights (to damage the eyes and neck), but also in everyday life.
As you can see, the person was always ready to go.quite far in trying to arm better than a potential adversary. We see the strangest weapons among the samples from the superpowers with huge military budgets, and among the non-contact wild tribes.
And I would like to finish our review with the words of Mikhail Kalashnikov. The brilliant Soviet designer repeatedly mentioned that it’s not a weapon that kills - it’s just a tool.