Buzz
The nature of warfare has drastically shifted with the rise of cutting-edge technologies. However, one constant remains: to succeed in battle, it's crucial to keep the true power of your forces and the scope of your weaponry concealed from adversaries. The most vital military secrets are entrusted only to a few who can be relied upon to execute the mission.
For this reason, the US government cannot fully reveal its defense strategies and resources to the citizens it pledges to protect. There must be occasions when military assets and strategies are created and deployed without the awareness of the American public—or the rest of the world, for that matter.
But what if the adversaries of the military-industrial complex, gaining undue power, became the very people it was meant to protect? What extraordinary secrets involving kinetic, psychological, biological, and energy-based warfare might then be lurking beneath the surface of public knowledge?
READ MORE: 10 Unusual World War II Weapons That Were Actually Created
Certain details regarding the existence and operational aspects of the following 10 weapons have become known to the public. Yet their development raises an intriguing question: What other instruments of destruction could be hidden in the shadows, completely beyond public knowledge?
10. Directed Energy Weapons
The ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes is believed to have made history over 2,000 years ago as the first person to employ a directed energy weapon. According to an enigmatic legend, during the Roman siege of Syracuse, Archimedes swiftly constructed a hexagonal mirror when Roman admiral Marcellus repositioned his ships beyond bowshot range.
It’s said that Archimedes managed to capture the Sun’s energy and direct it onto the Roman ships, igniting them and causing them to sink within mere minutes. In 2005, MIT students were able to replicate this effect, but they found that their mirror could only burn a stationary target effectively.
Although scientific knowledge has significantly advanced since Archimedes’ era, the fundamental principles behind directed energy weapon (DEW) technology remain largely unchanged. A DEW causes damage from a distance by firing a highly focused beam of energy at its target.
Different kinds of DEWs emit various forms of energy, with the most well-known type of directed energy weapon in use today being the high-energy laser (HEL). These DEWs resemble the lasers portrayed in science fiction films. They unleash a silent energy beam, invisible at certain wavelengths, capable of incinerating a target from hundreds of miles away.
HELs have been developed by contractors such as Lockheed Martin for applications in missile defense and space warfare, though some speculate that these weapons may have been created for far more nefarious purposes.
During the Thomas Fire that swept through California in December 2017, numerous witnesses and researchers observed property damage that seemed to defy all expectations of wildfire behavior. While wildfires typically spread through vegetation, entire neighborhoods were completely destroyed while surrounding trees remained unscathed.
Though no official explanation for this unusual occurrence has been provided, several witnesses across California captured videos showing beams of light descending from the sky as the fire spread across the state. Given that HELs are often mounted on aircraft nose cones, some have speculated that the devastation caused by the Thomas Fire may have been amplified by directed energy weapons.
9. Long Range Acoustic Devices
A new form of crowd control weapon emerged during the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri. As a striking demonstration of the growing power of a militarized American police state, the Ferguson Police Department employed countermeasures to suppress civil unrest, including the use of LRAD sound cannons.
With the ability to project voice commands up to 5.5 miles (9 kilometers), a Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) can cause severe physical pain to anyone within 330 feet (100 meters) of its sound beam. Although LRAD manufacturers prefer to refer to their products as “devices” rather than “weapons” for public relations reasons, anyone who has experienced its effects knows the reality is far different.
Just ask the US diplomats stationed in Cuba who began losing their hearing. After the thawing of relations between the United States and Cuba in 2015, diplomats posted to the newly reopened US embassy in Cuba started reporting sudden and permanent hearing loss.
US investigators determined that the diplomats had been targeted by a sophisticated, unnamed acoustic device that emits no audible sound but causes irreversible damage to the ears and brain of anyone within its range. The incident was so significant that the United States expelled two Cuban diplomats from their embassy in Washington.
However, the exact nature of this LRAD-like device and the identities of those responsible for deploying it against American officials remain unknown. If a sonic weapon was indeed used on US diplomats in Cuba, it would mark an unprecedented event in the history of international diplomacy.
8. Low-Frequency Microwave Mind Control
The suspected sonic attacks on the US embassy in Cuba reignited long-standing concerns about a different type of covert weapon. Back in 1965, during the peak of the Cold War, the Pentagon uncovered that the Soviets were emitting extremely low-frequency (ELF) microwave radiation at the US embassy in Moscow.
Although far too weak to cause immediate physical harm, it was believed that the so-called Soviet Signal could potentially affect the health or influence the behavior of embassy personnel. Rather than taking action to stop the radiation, the Pentagon decided to study its potential effects and attempt to replicate it domestically.
DARPA, a newly established branch of the Department of Defense at the time, initiated a project called Project Pandora to investigate the effects of ELF microwave radiation on primates. Though the results were inconclusive, project leader Richard Cesaro remained convinced, until the project ended in 1969, that ELF radiation represented a serious national security threat to the United States.
The Pentagon was never able to determine the exact purpose of the Soviet radiation at the US embassy, ultimately choosing to resolve the issue by enveloping the embassy in a protective barrier: An aluminum screen was erected around the perimeter of the building, much like a tinfoil hat for a structure.
Although DARPA closed the investigation into ELF radiation in 1969, more recent studies suggest that low-frequency microwave and radio waves could indeed have harmful effects on the human body. Research has even shown that signals emitted by cell phones can impact brain function, often disrupting natural sleep patterns.
In today's world, we are constantly surrounded by invisible signals that keep us connected and informed. But how much do we truly understand about this ubiquitous radiation and its potential effects on our health and even our thoughts?
7. Heart Attack Guns
Following the Watergate scandal of the early 1970s, Democratic Senator Frank Church spearheaded a committee to uncover any CIA activities that might have violated the agency’s charter. It was suspected that the CIA had amassed excessive unilateral power under the guise of the Cold War, and the Church Committee was formed to bring this shadowy agenda to light for the American public.
Although the Church Committee's efforts to curb the CIA's totalitarian tendencies were largely unsuccessful in the long term, several intriguing discoveries were made during the 1975 investigation. One such finding was the so-called “Heart Attack Gun,” a modified pistol capable of delivering an undetectable yet fatal dose of shellfish toxin into a distant target's body.
The darts fired from this silent weapon would theoretically leave a mark no bigger than a mosquito bite, dissolving almost immediately into the body’s tissues after delivering a toxic payload so deadly that the target would likely experience a heart attack within moments. It is unclear if the 'Heart Attack Gun' was ever used, but it’s possible that it could still be in operation today.
6. Magneto Hydrodynamic Explosive Munitions
In Arthur C. Clarke’s novel Earthlight, the renowned 20th-century science fiction author imagines a future weapon that utilizes electromagnetism to launch a jet of molten metal into space, destroying an attacking battleship. While this kind of weapon might sound far-fetched, it isn’t entirely fictional. Since World War II, various weapons manufacturers have produced self-forging penetrators (SFPs), which are used to pierce armor.
Using a chemical explosion and a metal liner, SFPs propel themselves toward an armored vehicle and reshape to breach the target. However, these conventional SFPs are inefficient and difficult to handle, prompting the need for a more advanced weapon to penetrate armor.
DARPA has created a specialized projectile for this purpose, known as the Magneto Hydrodynamic Explosive Munition (MAHEM). By employing electromagnetism to shape and direct a continuous jet of molten metal at an armored target, MAHEM offers greater flexibility than traditional SFPs and closely resembles the weapon described in Earthlight.
Apart from these basic facts, very little is known about this covert military project. However, it appears that China’s Nanjing University of Science and Technology has managed to reverse engineer MAHEM for its own strategic purposes.
Like many other facets of the hidden global conflict between East and West superpowers, the complete details surrounding the creation and use of this formidable weapon may never be fully revealed to the public.
5. Biological Weaponry
Between 1949 and 1969, the United States military conducted biological weapon tests on its own citizens without their knowledge or consent. One such test occurred in 1950 when a US Navy ship released billions of microscopic microbes into the air above San Francisco, leading to a surge in illnesses and potentially causing the death of one resident.
Another experiment took place in 1966 in the New York City subway system, where researchers dropped light bulbs filled with bacteria onto the tracks to observe how far the motion of a train would carry these potentially deadly germs. Additional experiments involved enveloping entire cities in a cloud of zinc cadmium sulfide under the guise of creating a smoke screen to conceal the population in the event of a nuclear conflict.
The military claims that these experiments were conducted to better protect us from foreign enemies, but many question whether the risks and ethical costs of such reckless research truly justify the potential benefits.
However, the release of dangerous pathogens into the atmosphere may be one of the lesser biological dangers to which the American public has been exposed by their own government. In 2016, DNI director James Clapper voiced concerns that gene-editing technology could become a weapon of mass destruction if it were to fall into the wrong hands.
Gene-editing science has spread rapidly across the globe, seemingly with little regard for the catastrophic consequences that might arise from tampering with the genetic makeup of life itself.
While naturally occurring diseases are alarming enough, genetic engineering has introduced the possibility of secretly created biological weapons capable of eliminating entire populations in a matter of hours. But genetically modified organisms (GMOs), which may have been released into the environment without the public’s knowledge, could potentially pose an even greater threat than designer viruses.
In 2013, approximately 300 scientists publicly rejected the idea that there is a consensus on the safety of GMOs for human consumption. This declaration prompted many restaurant chains, including Chipotle and Trader Joe's, to completely ban GMOs from their menus and shelves.
Despite the growing concerns, agribusiness corporations persist in modifying the genetic structure of essential crops like corn and soybeans, with the backing of numerous scientific studies and media outlets that constantly reassure the public that GMOs are harmless to both human health and the environment.
Companies like Monsanto receive substantial subsidies from the United States government. If GMOs are indeed harmful to human health, the widespread proliferation of these genetically engineered organisms could be seen as a covert extension of the government’s history of exposing its citizens to biological hazards.
READ MORE: 10 Brutal Historical Weapons of War
4. Subliminal Messaging
It is well-documented that subliminal messaging is widely used in advertising, often manipulating basic human instincts to drive consumers toward purchasing certain products or services. But could the same tactics be employed by the United States intelligence agencies for purposes such as espionage or even mind control?
A previously classified CIA document called “The Operational Potential of Subliminal Perception” outlines in detail the method for exploiting the principles of subliminal perception to influence someone into doing something they would normally avoid.
Although the author of the document ultimately asserts that the operational usefulness of subliminal perception is “extremely limited,” the CIA is renowned for operating effectively within tight constraints and still achieving its covert objectives with remarkable success.
3. HAARP
Hugo Chavez garnered international attention for the HAARP facility in Alaska when he accused the United States Air Force of using the high-frequency transmitter array to induce the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Before this, questioning the legitimacy of this Air Force research station was reserved for the most extreme conspiracy theorists.
Rumors surrounding the controversial aspects of HAARP seemed to subside when the Air Force declared its closure in 2014. However, these theories reignited when HAARP was reopened in 2017 under the management of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF).
In hindsight, it might not have been the best public relations move for the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) to choose an artificial weather phenomenon as their first experiment. When the institution announced their intent to create an invisible version of the aurora borealis in Alaska's skies, many saw it as evidence of HAARP's alleged weather manipulation capabilities.
While HAARP has often been accused of manipulating the weather and transmitting mind control signals, no conclusive proof has yet been presented to either confirm or refute these claims.
2. Project Thor
Possibly even more deadly than the MOAB, Project Thor is a concept created by Jerry Pournelle in the 1950s. This technology would annihilate enemies with bolts from above.
Known colloquially as “rods from God,” this type of Kinetic Energy Penetrator (KEP) involves two satellites. One serves as a targeting system, while the other carries 6-meter-long (20 ft) tungsten rods to be dropped onto a target from orbit. Capable of penetrating hundreds of feet into the Earth's crust, these thunderous projectiles would cause destruction comparable to a nuclear explosion, minus the radioactive fallout.
Although the expense of launching such rods into orbit is seen as prohibitive, the idea of reviving Project Thor was seriously entertained during the George W. Bush administration. With $21 trillion allegedly allocated without proper authorization by the Department of Defense and other agencies, it's difficult to say what potentially costly theoretical projects the U.S. government might be covertly bringing to life without the knowledge or consent of its citizens.
1. Flying Aircraft Carriers
In the late 1920s, the United States Navy explored the idea of airborne aircraft carriers. Two zeppelin-style airships were constructed: the USS Akron and the USS Macon. Each carried a crew of 60 and could deploy and recover Sparrowhawk fighter planes mid-flight. Unfortunately, both flying aircraft carriers met tragic ends and their wreckage now lies at the ocean floor.
More recently, rumors have emerged regarding DARPA's efforts to resurrect this chapter of military aviation history and create new airborne aircraft carriers for modern warfare. The proposed platforms, however, would carry drones instead of manned planes. Dubbed the “Gremlins” program, this ambitious initiative would utilize modified C-130 transports loaded with stealthy drones designed to slip past enemy defenses without detection.
Given DARPA’s tendency to unveil the planning stages of already-completed projects once they risk being exposed, it's plausible that “Gremlins” might already be patrolling the skies. If the claims of so-called insiders from secret space programs like Corey Goode are to be believed, there could even be Avengers-style Air Force “Helicarriers” flying above us, made invisible by cutting-edge cloaking technologies.
