Buzz
The development of weapons occasionally takes a strange and unexpected turn when creators push the boundaries of imagination in their tireless quest for more efficient and innovative ways to wage war. Nonlethal weapons, in particular, can become a tricky challenge when ambitious inventors allow their creativity to run wild. What may sound revolutionary on paper sometimes turns into bizarre designs that military forces wish they'd never considered. Some weapons are simply so outlandish that they are destined to fail.
10. The Love Bomb
In 1994, the research team at Brooks Air Force Base in Texas proposed a 'love bomb' designed to divert enemy combatants’ focus from fighting to making 'love.' The idea was that it could be especially effective if it caused 'homosexual behavior' among America’s enemies, according to the proposal.
The project suggested allocating $7.5 million to develop 'powerful aphrodisiacs' meant to trigger a (preferably homosexual) love fest. This proposal came to light after a military spending watchdog group requested documents under the Freedom of Information Act. Naturally, many questions arose about this 'love bomb.'
An Air Force spokesperson confirmed that they regularly review funding proposals, but the 'gay bomb' was quickly dismissed. Other ideas in the same proposal, such as creating bombs to attract stinging insects to enemy positions or emitting foul odors to repel enemies, were also rejected by the Defense Department.
A representative from the department stated that while he was unfamiliar with the specific proposal, it was undoubtedly one of the most absurd concepts he'd ever encountered. It's reassuring to know that at least some people in government possess common sense.
9. The Divine Voice Weapon
For years, rumors have circulated about the military developing a 'Divine Voice Weapon' capable of beaming voices directly into individuals' minds. While some soldiers claim to have witnessed or even experienced it, the weapon remains classified as an urban legend and dismissed as nonsensical by the military.
The technology behind such a weapon does, however, exist in the form of a gun.
Developed by Allan H. Frey, the microwave auditory effect (also known as the Frey effect) is a well-established phenomenon. When microwaves are directed at a person’s head in rapid pulses, they create a thermoelastic wave of acoustic pressure that stimulates the auditory receptors in the body, much like normal hearing. The US government invested significant resources into researching the bioeffects of microwave radiation for two decades.
Although a gun that uses microwaves to beam sound into someone’s head has been developed, the concept of the Divine Voice Weapon is more likely to cause brain damage than convince someone they are receiving messages from a higher power. The radiation might produce a 'divine' sound, but the amount of microwave energy required to achieve this would likely cook the person’s brain, destroying their neurons before they could process any messages.
Nonetheless, scientists continue to explore potential practical uses for this technology, particularly in the realm of advertising. For example, subliminal messages could be quietly transmitted to shoppers as they navigate grocery store aisles—hopefully without causing any harm to their brains.
8. Project Babylon
Gerald Bull was regarded as one of the leading experts in artillery, yet his true passion lay in creating 'Big Babylon,' a colossal supergun that had the potential to launch satellites into orbit. His smaller projects were used by multiple governments for both military applications and supersonic flight testing.
The Vietnam War, however, disrupted Bull's funding and pushed him to seek support elsewhere. Around this time, his colleagues began to suspect that his pursuit of money had led him into darker realms of military technology. Soon after, he was arrested for international arms trafficking.
Bull’s search for a financial backer eventually led him to Saddam Hussein, who agreed to fund Bull’s 'Project Babylon' on the condition that Bull would also contribute to other artillery projects for the Iraqi regime. Bull gladly accepted the offer.
Bull believed that Big Babylon would make an easy, immobile target for airstrikes if Saddam ever chose to weaponize it. However, it became increasingly clear that Saddam had always intended to use the supergun as a weapon, one capable of targeting satellites in space.
Foreign governments were aware of Saddam’s intentions but were more concerned with the artillery upgrades that Bull was making to Iraq’s conventional weapons. Shortly after testing the prototype, Bull was murdered outside his apartment, and Project Babylon came to an abrupt halt.
7. The Baynes Bat
During the World Wars, militaries fantasized about having airborne tanks that could be deployed to the battlefield at a moment’s notice. Among the many prototypes developed to make tanks fly, none was more ill-conceived than the Baynes Bat.
Unlike other designs that simply attached wings to a tank, British designer L.E. Baynes proposed a version with massive detachable wings, effectively transforming it into a temporary glider. A fleet of these weapons could soar directly to the battlefield, and once there, the wings would detach and be taken back for reuse.
A prototype was constructed—a glider nicknamed the 'Bat' due to its tailless design. Early test flights showed promising results, and the idea of flying a tank into battle seemed to be inching toward reality.
That dream was quickly dashed by Captain Eric Brown, a seasoned test pilot who strongly disagreed with the results of the initial tests, dismissing them as nonsense. Upon flying the Bat himself, he found the control harmony to be disastrously poor.
Although it wasn’t so bad that he couldn’t land the aircraft, the handling was so atrocious that he described the idea of attaching a tank to it as 'mind-boggling.' The Baynes Bat was permanently grounded.
6. The Gyrojet Rocket Gun
The Gyrojet was conceived as a lightweight, recoilless handgun that launched miniature 'rockets' instead of traditional bullets. These rockets resembled bullets but featured four exhaust ports on the back of their brass casings. Inside the projectiles was solid rocket fuel, and the exhaust expelled through the ports would cause the rocket to spin, ensuring a straight flight path. This design gave the weapon its name, 'Gyrojet.'
Despite how cool a rocket pistol seemed to its 1960s audience, firing a projectile powered by rocket fuel meant that it took time to reach full speed, just like any other rocket. The rocket guns proved ineffective at distances shorter than 3 meters (10 ft), making them poor choices as pistols.
Although several hundred Gyrojets were manufactured, and a few even saw action in combat, the invention ultimately failed to take off. Today, Gyrojets are nothing more than collector's items. The scarcity of their ammunition makes the 'rockets' themselves even more valuable than the guns.
5. The Pain Ray
In its pursuit of the ultimate nonlethal crowd control device, the US government developed a 'pain ray' that emitted millimeter waves to heat the top layer of the skin. The goal was to make crowds so uncomfortable with an 'intolerable heating sensation, like opening an oven door,' that they would scatter to escape the discomfort.
The pain ray was demonstrated to reporters, who volunteered to be targeted from 500 meters (1,640 ft) away. Due to the distance and possibly the rain affecting the device, the results were less painful and more... pleasant. Some journalists even joked that they wanted to be shot again. However, during actual military testing, one test subject had to be airlifted to a hospital after sustaining burns.
The pain ray was eventually used in Afghanistan but was quickly recalled due to its potential as a public relations disaster. The military was concerned about how locals would react upon learning that soldiers were zapping them with ray guns. Ultimately, the device was deemed 'politically untenable.'
4. The Sun Gun
During World War II, Germany had plans to build a massive space mirror that could incinerate enemy cities like ants under a magnifying glass. Though it sounded like a plot straight out of science fiction, the Third Reich took the plan very seriously since it was proposed by Hermann Oberth, the rocket scientist who was believed (according to the Life article below) to have invented the somewhat successful V-2 missile used for long-range bombings.
In fact, Wernher von Braun is credited with the development of the V-2. However, he had previously assisted Oberth with liquid-fueled rocket motor tests at the Technical University of Berlin and had been influenced by Oberth's earlier work.
Life magazine was the first to report that Germany had plans for an orbital sun gun, but they quickly dismissed the idea as mere fantasy. They argued that a mirror like the one Oberth envisioned would only cause a minor temperature increase, with no significant damage.
Clearly, they underestimated the scale of Oberth's design. He remained committed to his sun gun even after the project was shelved. He confidently declared, possibly with an evil chuckle, that while a 13,000-square-kilometer (5,000 mi) mirror might only warm the Earth to temperatures similar to the equator, a 26,000-square-kilometer (10,000 mi) mirror would irradiate the surface to a searing 200 degrees Celsius (392 °F).
3. USS Zumwalt
Zumwalt-class destroyers were intended to be the most advanced stealth warships in the US Navy's fleet. With unique angles designed to deflect radar signals, the ship’s radar signature was so diminished that it appeared more like a 15-meter (50 ft) fishing boat than a military vessel.
The plan was for the destroyers to get close enough to enemy shorelines to unleash highly precise, GPS-guided shells deep into enemy territories. These groundbreaking shells, known as Long Range Land Attack Projectiles, ultimately contributed to the downfall of the Zumwalt class.
Soon after the USS Zumwalt was commissioned, the Navy opted to cancel the order for the rounds due to their $800,000 price tag per unit. Even for the US Navy, that kind of cost per shot proved too high. The blame was placed on the decision to reduce the number of ships from 32 to 3, which inflated the cost of the rounds by 12 times.
Now, the Navy faces a difficult question: how to replace the guns? Lockheed Martin has suggested an alternative guided artillery round for the ships, while railguns are also under consideration, contingent on the technology's viability. A more traditional missile barrage is another possibility, given the current state of naval warfare.
Regardless of the choice, the $22.5 billion invested in the advanced weapon system seems to have been a wasted effort.
2. Project Habakkuk
The idea of an aircraft carrier built from ice and wood pulp seemed preposterous to most, except for Winston Churchill. When presented with a sample of pykrete, a material made of 15% wood pulp and 85% water that an inventor claimed could form a 610-meter (2,000 ft) aircraft carrier impervious to shells and torpedoes, Churchill was immediately intrigued and jumped aboard the project.
Project Habakkuk envisioned a 2.2-million-ton vessel with a refrigeration system to keep the pykrete intact. It was cheaper than steel, and if it sustained damage, repairs could be made simply by applying more pykrete solution to any holes.
Creating an aircraft carrier from ice and wood pulp was a tough sell, made even harder by the project's creator—a former business tycoon, possibly insane and so full of arrogance that the US Army distanced itself from him. Nonetheless, a smaller prototype was constructed in Canada, and to everyone’s surprise, it floated.
Despite its potential, Project Habakkuk faced heavy criticism from British and US skeptics, who dismissed it as an impractical fantasy. The project spiraled over budget, and as the tide of the war shifted in the Allies' favor, the need for such a radical invention faded. With no more urgency for a floating ice carrier, the project was swiftly shelved.
One still wonders, though—given that a pykrete-based vessel actually floated, could it have succeeded?
1. Suicide Motorboats
While Japan's kamikaze pilots are infamous for their deadly attacks on naval vessels, Italy's navy also had its own kamikaze-inspired tactics. The 10th Light Flotilla used a variety of covert vehicles to strike Allied ships, including miniature submarines. Among their most unusual and arguably least effective weapons were MTMs (modified tourist motorboats) packed with explosives.
The intention behind these boats was not for suicide missions. Rather, they were designed with a mechanism where the cockpit would detach when the boat was within 91 meters (300 feet) of the target, allowing the pilot to then wait in a life raft for rescue after the detonation. However, this distance didn't guarantee a hit, and many pilots were ultimately asked to sacrifice their lives for the success of the mission.
Despite the high hopes for the MTMs, their impact was limited, with the largest successful attack resulting in the sinking of just two Allied merchant ships after several failed attempts. After their explosive missions, the pilots were left stranded in life rafts, captured, and unable to return to combat. While the pilots were regarded as 'elite' by the Italian navy, their efforts had minimal effect on the course of the war.
