The worst weapon in the world. Named the worst firearms

Stengun MK II

Country: UK
Entered service: 1940
Type: submachine gun
Range: 70 meters
Shop: 32 rounds

Britain needed small arms, but did not have the resources and time to produce. The result was the Sten gun MK II: it was easy to assemble and the manufacturing cost was minimal. The submachine gun often misfired; in addition, due to assembly defects, the bullets could generally lose their destructive power, barely flying out of the barrel.

bazooka

Country: USA
Entered service: 1942
Type: anti-tank weapon
Range: about 152 meters
Shop: 1 rocket

The bazooka was inconvenient to use and created problems both for the shooter himself and for the soldiers around him. However, based on these weapons, more advanced models subsequently appeared.

Revolver

Country: USA
Commissioned: 1856
Type: pistol

Shop: 9 rounds

The revolver could shoot buckshot - which, in principle, was a great idea for a personal weapon. Designed as a weapon for a cavalryman at the end civil war, LeMat had 9 pistol rounds in the drum and one more, loaded with buckshot, in an additional barrel. The soldier had to switch the movable striker manually to select the type of cartridge. In theory, everything worked well, in practice it turned out that the firing pin sticks in 3 out of 5 cases, leaving the owner of the revolver unarmed.

Krummlauf

Country: Nazi Germany
Entered service: 1945
Type: assault rifle
Range: 15 meters
Shop: 30 rounds

A cannon with a twisted barrel might work in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, but it's unlikely to work in real life. The Krummlauf was designed for shooting around corners. The shooter chose the target using a special periscope. By the time the weapon was put into production, its incredibly high cost was found out and the project was frozen.

Shosha machine gun

Country: France
Commissioned: 1915
Type: machine gun
Range: 5,000 meters
Shop: 20 rounds

At the height of the First World War, the Chauchet machine gun entered service with the French army - the embodiment of what a functional killing machine should definitely not be. Machine guns were made so carelessly that the shooter was injured due to the incredibly strong recoil. The trigger mechanism constantly jammed, but even if everything went fine, then 20 rounds were clearly not enough to support the advancing soldiers with fire.

Country: USA
Entered service: 1965
Type: pistol
Range: 300 meters
Shop: 6 rounds

The Gyrojet pistol is considered almost the most creative representatives of the species - rocket ammunition is used as cartridges. However, the pistol was inaccurate and often exploded right in the hands of the fighter, causing serious injury.

Mars

Country: UK
Commissioned: 1900
Type: pistol
Range: 300 meters
Capacity: 6 rounds

In the early 20th century, many inventors struggled to create a simple, functional self-loading pistol. In the end, the Colt M1911 was created, which became the standard for personal weapons in Western countries. But before him, the British government made bets on the Mars pistol. Difficult to operate, he, moreover, threw out the shells right in the face of the shooter.

Revolver Apache

Country: USA
Commissioned: 1880
Type: revolver
Range: melee

The designer tried to make a weapon that combines a knife, brass knuckles and a small-caliber revolver - all this was supposed to unfold like a killer transformer. In practice, none of the components worked. The knife is thin and poorly fastened in an unreliable hinge. The revolver fired appallingly inaccurately and was weak. Brass brass knuckles could damage the fighter's hand. As an added bonus, the trigger was so gentle that the owner of the Apache could easily shoot off his own manhood with just a sneeze.

1. Cochran system revolver

One of the rarest revolvers. Its feature was the presence of a drum for cartridges, which rotated in a horizontal plane. Whenever a shot was fired, the spare round was pointed at the shooter. This was very risky, since in the event of wear of the metal parts of the revolver and the uncontrolled spread of hot gas after the combustion of gunpowder in the spent cartridge case, the cartridge directed at the shooter could “work”.

2. Nambu pistol (94 Shiki Kenju)

Source: radical.ru

Project of a Japanese pistol from World War II. Considered one of the worst automatic pistols. It was distinguished by low firing power, was heavy and inconvenient to use. Often gave misfires. The unfinished design of the pistol made it possible to fire even before the breech of the weapon was locked. An accidental touch of the trigger also led to a spontaneous shot. In general, as they said then, this gun was more dangerous for its owner than for his enemy.

3. Allen & Thurber (multi-barrel revolver)

Source: 3.bp.blogspot.com

This type of firearm was popular before the advent of Colt revolvers. Was too heavy for a large number trunks. In addition, due to the fact that the shooting was carried out in bursts, all the barrels periodically fired, and all the bullets went to the target at once! As a rule, in such cases, the revolver failed, and the shooter received serious injuries to the wrist. And they sometimes exploded in the hands and were inaccurate when fired.

4. Grossflammenwerfer

Source: wikimedia.org

Heavy German flamethrower from World War II. It was a simple cylindrical tank with a compressed gas cylinder and hand-carrying brackets, connected to a hose with an arcuate outlet pipe. His big weight required the presence of a calculation of at least two soldiers. Due to the enormous risk that this “liquid bomb” posed for its servants, as a rule, convicted felons or captured Wehrmacht deserters were assigned to the combat crew. In addition, the soldiers of the anti-Hitler coalition, considering flamethrowers to be exclusively barbaric weapons, did not take German flamethrowers prisoner.

The motto of the famous Soviet aircraft manufacturer Andrei Tupolev was the phrase that an ugly car will never fly. The legendary gunsmith Igor Stechkin often said that ugly weapons do not shoot. However, several dozens of ugly, bizarre and frankly ugly tanks have been created in the entire history of armored vehicles. Most of these machines have not received wide distribution, but their bright mark in history military equipment they still managed to leave.
colorful Australian The Australians began to create their own armored vehicles at a time when the invisible threat of an amphibious landing from Japan began to take on very specific outlines. However, the approach to creating their own armored vehicles, even taking into account the available foreign developments, was extremely unusual for the Australians. Originality, with a partial eye on colleagues in the armored workshop, eventually turned into the creation of the Sentinel medium tank, the mass production of which was to be launched from 1942. To destroy the enemy landing force thrown along coastline, such a tank was quite suitable. Rugged cast hull, three Kidillac engines with a total power of 350 Horse power, and quite tolerable weapons. The 40-mm QF-2 anti-tank rifled gun played the main violin in delivering lead to the enemy, and two Vickers machine guns were engaged in the suppression of infantry and other unarmored targets. "box with dignity". A massive armored mask was welded on the front of the hull to protect the machine gun, outwardly very vaguely resembling protective devices. According to experts, the armored cap covering the tank machine gun should protect the crew as much as possible when shells and shrapnel hit. However, neither during the development of the tank and its testing, as well as throughout the entire post-war history, people who were involved in the development of this vehicle, as well as historians and museum staff, could not answer the question of curious citizens why the armored cap has the shape of - for which photos of the tank in some publications are marked "18+".
Great craftsmen

With the exception of recent history in the armored forces of Italy there was almost never a normal, well-armed and, last but not least, eye-pleasing tank. All the work of Italian industrialists and engineers on their own promising armored vehicles is more like trying to experiment just out of boredom. In fairness, it should be noted that Italian engineers were among the first to use diesel engines and other design innovations in their own armored vehicles. The Italian gunsmiths were also in the lead in terms of the creation of armored vehicles with terrible hull shapes and an incomprehensible purpose. One of the most monstrous, senseless and scary tanks FIAT 2000 became in the history of Italian armored vehicles. The 40-ton monster, the mastodon of the First World War, was armed with a 65-mm gun and NINE machine guns. There is no need to talk much about the combat effectiveness of the Italian tank. Serial production these machines could not be adjusted, and two prototypes, thrown into the fire of battles in Libya, demonstrated top speed as much as 4 kilometers per hour, and their use was very quickly abandoned. Another "invention" of Italian gunsmiths is an armored "scooter" - an assault self-propelled machine gun MIAS, the crew of which consisted of one person. The development of the machine gun was carried out by specialists from Ansaldo, the main state contractor and supplier Italian army. A quarter-liter engine gave the self-propelled gun an impressive power for such dimensions - 5 hp, and allowed it to develop a maximum speed of 5 km / h. Despite the fact that Mias never went into production, remaining at the stage of several prototypes, its main purpose was to support infantry formations. The developers planned to achieve this by installing a 6.5-mm Scotti machine gun in the design, the ammunition load of which was one thousand rounds. nuclear tanks
Products that did not survive to mass production and even experimental tests are one of the topics for a separate story. The minds of scientists and the military after the war were occupied by machines capable of fighting always, everywhere, without rest and failures. One of these vehicles was the American tank TV-8, which was developed by the American company Chrysler. The main highlight of the tank was an unusually shaped hull, which looked more like an unidentified flying object than an experimental, but still armored vehicle. All units, including the gun, auxiliary devices and the power plant, were located inside a fancy turret-hull. The tank was supposed to be used in the most different conditions, including fighting after a nuclear attack. In order to move anytime and anywhere, the developers have designed a special hybrid transmission in which diesel engine acted as a generator of electricity, which through special devices would set the car in motion. For some time, gas turbines were considered as alternatives power point, as well as the most exotic - atomic, to the creation of an experimental prototype of which the matter never came. And although the armament of the tank was a 90-mm T20 gun, the vain work and torment of the developers soon stopped - the project was officially frozen. american tank often compared with the Soviet experimental product Object 279. These machines really have a lot in common - an incomprehensible look and shape of the body, controversial technological solutions. However, both the American TV-8 and the Soviet Object 279 were designed to operate in difficult areas. Soviet tank builders in this matter have advanced most deeply. The design of caterpillar propellers ensured the patency of the machine even in deep snow and in wetlands. Despite the fact that the Soviet machine weighed 60 tons, thanks to the mobility and patency of the structure, it became possible to install a powerful 130-mm M-65 gun. However, the unique Soviet machine, as well as its American counterpart, never saw serial production.
On the trail of monsters One of those who, immediately after the Nazis, liked the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bcreating giant tanks was the Americans. In 1943, the United States launched a program to create a super-heavy and protected tank capable of breaking through any, even the most fortified enemy area. The result of titanic work was the freak tank T-28, according to appearance more reminiscent of an artillery battery with four tracks. The main weapon of the vehicle was a 105 mm gun, covered with an armored mask 305 mm thick. The pairwise use of caterpillars, two on each side, became a necessary measure. The mass of the car was 86 tons, and moving around in such conditions, and even more so fighting, was not an easy task. Serial production of the monster tank, of course, did not see. In total, two experimental vehicles were made, one of which is still stored in the armored vehicles museum at Fort Knox. The ugliest tank in the world
For a long time it was believed that the "honorary" title of the ugliest tank in the world would not leave the Italian work of tank art - the eight-ton Fiat Ansaldo. However, the experts of the American magazine National Interest found the king of the list of the ugliest tanks in history. The winner in this category was the New Zealand Bob Semple, which was never created or designed as fighting machine. At its core, the New Zealand product is a tractor hung with armor plates and a pair of machine guns, with which the New Zealand government planned to destroy the Japanese landing force. 25.4 tons and was able to move at a speed of 12 km / h. The tank had two layers of armor: 12.7 mm thick corrugated manganese steel plates were fixed on top of 8 mm armor. The crew of the combat vehicle consisted of six people.
In total, three tanks were produced, each of which was armed with six Bren 303-mm machine guns. Two machine guns were located in front, one more - on each side and behind, and one gun was placed in the tower. After a whole wave of scandals related to the production and construction of this tank, all work on its creation was stopped, and the already built tanks were transferred to military tests. The shelling of tanks from light small arms and machine guns showed that under conditions of real, and not test shelling, the tank crew could live, on average, 25 minutes. The tank designer himself, on a wave of criticism, called the car "an honest attempt to make at least something out of the available materials in conditions where the invader was on the threshold."

The creators of modern small arms are doing their best to make life easier for a soldier. Excessive "abstruseness" of the design only leads to difficulties in operation, which is unacceptable in real combat operations. But this seemingly simple idea, the designers did not come immediately. For the last hundred years, they have been creating weapons so strange that soldiers often simply refuse to use them. Here, for example, are several real-life models of personal small arms that are considered the worst in the whole world.

• Stengun MK II

  A country: Great Britain
  Has been put into operation: 1940
  Type: submachine gun
  Range defeat: 70 meters
  Shop: 32 rounds

  The UK needed small arms but lacked the resources and time to produce them. The result was the Sten gun MK II: it was easy to assemble and the manufacturing cost was minimal. The submachine gun often misfired; in addition, due to assembly defects, the bullets could generally lose their destructive power at the end.




bazooka

A country: USA
Has been put into operation: 1942
Type: anti-tank weapon
Range: about 152 meters
Shop: 1 rocket

The bazooka was inconvenient to use and created problems both for the shooter himself and for the soldiers around him. Nevertheless, based on these weapons, more advanced models subsequently appeared.




Le Ma

A country: USA
Was put into operation: 1856
Type: revolver
Range defeat: 300 meters
Shop: 9 rounds

The revolver could shoot buckshot - which, in principle, was a great idea for a personal weapon. Developed as a cavalry weapon at the end of the civil war, Le Ma had 9 pistol cartridges in the drum and another loaded with buckshot in an additional barrel. The soldier had to switch the movable striker manually to select the type of cartridge. In theory, everything worked well, in practice it turned out that the firing pin sticks in 3 out of 5 cases, leaving the owner of the revolver unarmed.




Krummlauf

State: Nazi Germany
Has been put into operation: 1945
Type: assault rifle
Damage range: 15 meters
Shop: 30 rounds

A cannon with a twisted barrel might work in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, but it's unlikely to work in real life. The Krummlauf was designed for shooting around corners. The operator chose the target using a special periscope. By the time the weapon was put into production, its incredibly high cost was revealed and the project was frozen.




Shosha machine gun

A country: France
Has been put into operation: 1915
Type: machine gun
Range: up to 800 meters
Shop: 20 rounds

At the height of the First World War, the Chauchet machine gun entered service with the French army - the embodiment of what a functional killing machine should definitely not be. The machine guns were made so carelessly that the operator was injured due to the incredibly strong recoil. The trigger mechanism constantly jammed, but even if everything went fine, then 20 rounds were clearly not enough to support the advancing soldiers with fire.




Gyrojet

A country: USA
Has been put into operation: 1965
Type: gun
Range: 300 meters
Shop: 6 rounds

The Gyrojet pistol is considered almost the most creative representative of the species. Rocket ammunition was used as projectiles: the pistol was inaccurate and often exploded right in the hands of a soldier.




Mars

A country: Great Britain
Has been put into operation: 1900
Type: gun
Range: 300 meters
Capacity: 6 rounds

In the early 20th century, many inventors struggled to create a simple, functional self-loading pistol. In the end, the Colt M1911 was created, which became the standard for personal weapons in Western countries. But before him, the British government made bets on the Mars pistol. Difficult to operate, he, moreover, threw out the shells right in the face of the shooter.




Revolver Apache

A country: USA
Has been put into operation: 1880
Type: revolver
Range: melee

The designer tried to make a weapon that combines a knife, brass knuckles and a small-caliber revolver - all this was supposed to unfold like a killer transformer. In practice, none of the components worked. The knife is thin and poorly fastened in an unreliable hinge. The revolver fired appallingly inaccurately and was weak. Brass brass knuckles could damage the fighter's hand. As an added bonus, the trigger guard was so gentle that the owner of the Apache could easily shoot off his own manhood with just a sneeze.

Dream up and imagine the wars of the future: there are no tanks and machine guns, and the opponents fire at each other from electromagnetic guns with projectiles that can reach the opposite side of the Earth in a few minutes. Some of these plans have already been implemented, so future generations will not be bored. But the most dangerous weapon in the world probably has not even been invented yet.

1. Tsar bomb

The most powerful thermonuclear charge Soviet Union blew up at a test site located on Novaya Zemlya, and only a year and a half later, N. Khrushchev "pleased" the world with the news that the USSR had a hydrogen bomb with a capacity of 100 megatons.
The political purpose of the tests was to show America its military power, since it was able to create a hydrogen bomb 4 times smaller than the power. The test was aerial - the "tsar bomb" (then it was called "Kuzkin's mother" in Khrushchev's language) exploded at an altitude of 4.2 km.
The explosion mushroom rose into the stratosphere (67 kilometers), having a diameter of 9.2 kilometers. Three times the shock wave of the explosion circled Earth, another 40 minutes after it, the ionized atmosphere spoiled the quality of radio communications for hundreds of kilometers around. The heat from the explosion directly below the epicenter was so strong that it turned even stones into ashes. Fortunately, this gigantic explosion was quite “clean”, since 97% of the energy was released due to thermonuclear fusion, and, unlike nuclear decay, it almost does not pollute the territory with radiation.

2. Castle Bravo

It was the American answer to the “kuzkin mother”, but much more “thin” - some miserable 15 megatons. But if you think about it, this figure should impress. With the help of such a bomb, it would be quite possible to destroy a large metropolis. Structurally, it was a two-stage ammunition consisting of a thermonuclear charge (solid lithium deuteride) and a uranium shell.
The explosion was carried out on Bikini Atoll, and a total of 10,000 people watched it: from a special bunker 32 km from the explosion site, from ships and aircraft. The strength of the explosion exceeded the calculated one by 2.5 times due to the underestimation of the fact that one of the lithium isotopes, which were considered ballast, also participated in the reaction. The explosion was ground-based (the charge was in a special bunker) and left behind a giant funnel, but the main thing is that it was incredibly “dirty” - it contaminated a large space with radiation. Many local residents, Japanese sailors and even the American military themselves suffered from it.

German Union technical supervision annually issues reports on the defectiveness of different brands of machines. Any brand that enters the technical inspection is checked at least ...

3. Atomic bomb

This type of weapon started a new chapter in military affairs. As you know, the Americans were the first to create an atomic bomb, who on July 16, 1945 conducted its first test in the desert in New Mexico. It was a single-stage plutonium device called the Gadget. Not satisfied with the first successful test, the US military hastened almost immediately to test it in a real war.
We can say that the tests in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were successful - both cities were destroyed, thousands of people died. But the world was horrified by the power of the new weapon and the one who owned it. That application nuclear weapons on real targets, fortunately, it turned out to be the only one. In 1950, the USSR got its own atomic bomb, as a result of which an equilibrium was created in the world based on inevitable retribution and mutual nuclear destruction in the event of a “hot war” unleashing.
Having acquired such a powerful weapon, the two countries had to resolve the issues of its prompt delivery to the target. As a result, strategic bombers, ballistic missiles and submarines were developed. Since the air defense system began to outperform aviation, preference was given to missiles, which are now the main delivery vehicle for nuclear charges.

4. Topol-M

This modern missile system is the best in Russian army delivery vehicle. Its 3-stage rockets are invulnerable to any modern look air defense. A missile designed to carry nuclear charges is ready to hit a target 11,000 km away. The Russian army has about 100 such complexes. The development of Topol-M began back in the USSR, and its first tests took place in 1994, with only one of 16 launches ending in failure. Although the system is already on alert, it continues to be improved, in particular, the head of the rocket.

5. Chemical weapons

The first mass use of chemical weapons in combat conditions occurred near the Belgian city of Ypres in April 1915. Then the Germans launched clouds of chlorine at the enemy from cylinders previously installed on the front line. Then 5,000 died and 15,000 Frenchmen, who were not ready for such a turn, were seriously poisoned. Then the armies of all countries indulged in the use of mustard gas, phosgene and bromine, far from always getting the expected result.
Japanese next world war repeatedly used chemical weapons in the fighting in China. For example, when they bombed the city of Woqu, they dropped a thousand chemical shells on it, and another 2,500 bombs were thrown on Dingxiang. The Japanese used chemical weapons until the end of the war. According to rough estimates, about 50,000 soldiers and civilians died from the use of chemical weapons.
The next large-scale use of chemical weapons was distinguished by the Americans in Vietnam, who in the 60s sprayed 72 million liters of defoliants over its jungle, with the help of which they sought to destroy the vegetation in the thick of which the Vietnamese guerrillas, who so annoyed the Yankees, hid. Dioxin was present in these mixtures, which has a cumulative effect, as a result, people developed blood diseases and internal organs genetic mutations have occurred. Almost 5 million Vietnamese suffered from chemical attacks by the Americans, and the number of victims continued to grow after the end of the war.
The last time chemical weapons were used in Syria was in 2013, with the conflicting parties blaming each other for this. As you can see, the ban on chemical weapons by the Hague and Geneva conventions does not stop the military much. Although Russia destroyed 80% of the stocks of chemical weapons it inherited from the USSR.

6. Laser weapons

This is more of a hypothetical weapon under development. So, in 2010, the Americans reported a successful test of a laser gun off the coast of California - a 32 MW device was able to shoot down 4 drones at a distance of over 3 km. If successful, such a weapon will be able to destroy targets hundreds of kilometers apart from space in a matter of seconds.

7. Bioweapon

By antiquity, biological weapons are ready to compete with cold ones. So, one and a half thousand years BC. e. The Hittites struck the enemies with a plague. Understanding the power of biological weapons, many armies, leaving the fortresses, left infected corpses there. The Japanese during World War II, in addition to chemical weapons, did not disdain biological weapons.
The causative agent of anthrax is one of the most dangerous for humans. This bacterium lives for a long time in the ground. In 2001, letters with white powder began to arrive in the American Parliament, and immediately there was a fuss that these were anthrax spores. 22 people were infected, 5 of whom died. Most often, infection can occur through skin lesions, but it is also possible to become infected by swallowing or inhaling bacillus spores.
Now to biological weapons equated both genetic and entomological weapons. The second is associated with the use of insects that suck blood or otherwise attack a person, and the first is able to selectively act on groups of people with a certain genetic feature. In modern biological munitions, strains of various pathogens are usually used - in this way, an increase in mortality among people exposed to it can be achieved. Preference is given to strains that are not transmitted between people, so that an attack on a specific target does not turn into a large-scale epidemic.

8. MLRS "Smerch"

The ancestor of this formidable weapon was the famous Katyusha, which was used with great success against the German army. After the atomic bomb, this, according to experts, is the most terrible weapon. It takes only 3 minutes to prepare a 12-barreled Smerch for battle, and a volley is fired in 38 seconds. This system effectively destroys modern tanks and other armored vehicles. Rocket projectiles can be launched from a remote control or directly from the cab of a car. "Smerch" can be successfully used in extreme heat and in severe cold, at any time of the day.
This weapon is not selective - it destroys armored vehicles and personnel over a large area. Russia exports this type of weapons to 13 states, including the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, India, Peru, and Kuwait. The machine with the installation is not too expensive for its efficiency - about 12.5 million dollars. But the work of one such installation is capable of stopping the advance of an enemy division.

9. Neutron bomb

American Samuel Cohen invented the neutron bomb as a variant of a nuclear weapon with minimal destructive power, but a maximum of radiation that kills all life. The shock wave here accounts for only 10-20% of the energy released during the explosion (in an atomic explosion, half of the explosion energy is spent on destruction).
After the development of the neutron bomb, the Americans put it into service with their army, but after a while they abandoned this option. The action of the neutron bomb turned out to be ineffective, since the released neutrons are actively absorbed by the atmosphere, and the effect of their action is local. Moreover, neutron charges had a minimum power - only 5-6 kilotons. But much more useful were neutron charges in missile defense systems. A neutron anti-missile that explodes near an enemy aircraft or missile creates a powerful neutron flux that disables all electronics and control of the target.
Another direction of development of this idea was neutron guns, which are a generator capable of creating a directed neutron flux (actually an accelerator). The more powerful the generator, the more powerful neutron flux it can provide. The armies of the United States, Russia and France now have similar weapons.

After microorganisms and plankton, insects are the most numerous representatives of life on Earth. Most of them are completely...

10. Intercontinental ballistic missile RS-20 "Voevoda"

This is also a Soviet model of strategic weapons. NATO representatives nicknamed this missile "Satan" for its exceptional destructive power. For the same reason, she got into the ubiquitous Guinness Book of Records. This ballistic missile can hit objects at a distance of 11,000 kilometers. Its multiple reentry vehicles are capable of bypassing a missile defense system, which makes the RS-20 even scarier.