The INSANE Weapons of U.S. Military

The United States military is home to some of the most insane and overpowered weapons on the planet. From stealth bombers to ballistic missiles that can strike with pinpoint accuracy from thousands of miles away, the raw power of the US military is unmatched. But what you're about to see goes far beyond the typical weapons of war. In this video, we're diving into the craziest, most unbelievable weapons that the US is actually using right now. Some that have been around for decades, still deadly, still terrifying, and still in use by the US military today, and some so advanced they seem ripped straight from science fiction. But here's where things get really crazy. Some of these weapons are being designed for conflicts we haven't even imagined yet. Think lasers, electronic warfare, and drones capable of operating without a human pilot. What's coming next could redefine how wars are fought. Stick around as we reveal the most insane weapons in the US military arsenal and uncover what makes them so terrifying to America's enemies. Let's begin with one of the most important examples of a new and cutting-edge weapon, the US Navy's Helios laser system. There's a lot to worry about if you're a US Navy sailor moving into a disputed area like the South China Sea. It's not just hostile aircraft potentially coming from nearby fortified islands or from the Chinese mainland, but also the arsenal of thousands of anti-ship, ballistic, and cruise missiles that Beijing has acquired over the years. Drones are now also making their way to the seas and the skies above them, and the Ukrainians have proven how lethal these can be in their huge successes against Russia's Black Sea Fleet. Not long from now, we'll be seeing drones acting en masse, coordinating with each other to present a cohesive threat. Shoot down one and you'll be dealing with their comrades. The problem is that shooting down even one of these threats is expensive. Missiles cost a lot to produce and have sophisticated supply chains that can be disrupted, so if a formation of enemy fighter jets comes at you in a peer conflict, you might not have enough on hand, especially if the fight has been going on for a while and depletion has set in. Shooting down drones with missiles is an even worse defense strategy. The economics simply don't add up. In today's environment, a cheaper alternative with minimal potential for disruption is required, especially for shooting down drones. Helios is one of the answers. Short for High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical Dazzler and Surveillance, it's a 60-plus kilowatt laser with a range of five miles mounted onto ships, the first such directed energy weapon of its kind. The Navy received the first Helios in the third quarter of fiscal year 2022. It can shoot down targets in the sky and on the surface. Best of all, it doesn't require an expensive supply chain or an extensive ammunition magazine. The ship's power is sufficient to operate the laser. Using the Helios not only saves ammunition and destroys threats for bargain prices, it keeps their vessels at sea for longer because there's not as much pressure to reload. Once ammunition is depleted, naval vessels need to sail hundreds of miles to a safe zone to reload their magazines, and the war in Ukraine has shown us that ammunition gets depleted quickly in a conflict with a peer or near-peer adversary, the type of environment the US Navy is preparing for, particularly against China, where the tyranny of distance will come into play. The Helios would help to mitigate that disadvantage by giving the US Navy's ships more staying power in the contested theater. There will be less of a need for long supply chains and less ships will be able to do more, which is critical since the US Navy would not be able to concentrate all of its power in the region in a conflict. Unsurprisingly, the Navy is betting big on Helios. In 2022, it requested tens of millions of dollars worth of them to mount on its existing ships. They'll be a common sight in a few short years. The US is investing in the development of drones too. Unmanned systems proved their centrality in battle during the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2020, where the Azerbaijanis used them to completely reverse their traditional military disadvantage. The war in Ukraine has confirmed the results of 2020. The Ukrainians have used thousand-dollar drones to destroy Russian tanks worth millions of dollars and conduct targeted strikes deep within Russian territory. The so-called loitering munitions are among the most effective drones. These weapons can linger in an area for hours and gather valuable intelligence before blowing themselves up in a kamikaze assault on a designated target. Consider two of them, the Phoenix Ghost and the Switchblade. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists call these crafty weapons, part drone, part missile, and if you're a soldier near the front that needs a way to precisely reach your enemy and artillery support is lacking, these types of drones are ideal alternatives. The Pentagon publicly revealed the Phoenix Ghost for the first time in 2022, amid a military aid package to Ukraine which included 121 of these drones. The Phoenix Ghost is designed as a one-way munition that can stay in the air for up to six hours before launching itself at a target. Both the Phoenix Ghost and the Switchblade have infrared guidance, meaning they can operate at all hours of the day. When these drones loiter, they're good at getting coordinates for artillery and air support. When they attack, they're ideal for attacking entrenched enemy positions like machine gun nests and even more ideal for attacking lightly armored vehicles or supply trucks. The largest of these drones, the Switchblade 600, comes with a warhead based on the Javelin anti-tank missile, which makes it an ideal way to destroy tanks. However, there is a trade-off to this increased power, as the Switchblade 600 variety can only stay in the air for 40 minutes, so it's more of an attack weapon than a surveillance one. The best part about drones like the Phoenix Ghost and its cousin the Switchblade is their portability. The Phoenix Ghost and Switchblade 300 can fit inside backpacks, which means soldiers can easily carry them wherever they're needed. The drones are launched from portable tubes that resemble mortars. Once in the sky, they spread their wings and fly. The Pentagon described the Phoenix Ghost in particular as a weapon that perfectly fit the needs of Ukraine's military. During their initial delivery, the Ukrainians mounted their successful counter-offensives in Kharkiv and Khersonoblasts, driving the Russians out of half the total territory they'd acquired since the start of the invasion. The Phoenix Ghost and Switchblade drones weren't the only things responsible for that, but their portability and firepower proved their effectiveness in allowing the Ukrainian infantry to increase its range and punching power against Russian armor and entrenched artillery positions. But these successes shouldn't be surprising, because the drones had already proven their usefulness. The U.S. military began playing with them as early as 2012, when initial tests of the Switchblade in Afghanistan proved so successful that it immediately requested more of them to be manufactured. The Switchblade's successful launch from the bay of an Osprey transport also proved the concept of launching these devices from the air. Soon we might see drone motherships, like the unmanned wingmen of the planned 6th Generation ENGAD and FAXX jet fighters, launching small alloitering munitions from their bays. But if you need to defend against these drones and don't have cool lasers like the Helios on standby, what should you do? You definitely don't want to use surface-to-air missiles if you can avoid it, because that's a way of ruining your war economy quickly. Shooting down the drones with typical kinetic weapons can also be a problem, since they're often small and fast-moving targets. Instead, electronic warfare systems have proven their importance in Ukraine, as these can jam drones and either force them to the ground or oblige them to return to their designated bases. But these systems are not foolproof. Russian troops in particular have had problems with their jammers, since their models tend to overheat and become ineffective. Jammers must also be angled to effectively stop incoming drones. Experienced drone operators also program their drones to designate their targets as home bases. Drone operators on both sides of the conflict are also experimenting with artificial intelligence that needs no communications with humans to operate, so in the near future, today's electronic counter drone systems will need a makeover. Electronic warfare will continue to be important, but another layer of protection is required. This point was proven in a dramatic way on January 28th, 2024, when an American outpost in Jordan called Tower 22 came under attack from an enemy drone that left three service members dead and 47 injured. The base lacked kinetic air defences and relied exclusively on electronic systems, which proved a point of vulnerability. A second base came under fire from Iranian-backed militias too. This was the A1 TAMF facility a few miles north in Syria. However, this attack was not successful, because that base was armed with interceptors. The Coyote is an air-breathing missile that can be launched from vehicles on the ground, helicopters or ships. It uses KU-band radars for guidance and fire control quality. The Coyote is not a traditional SAM, though. The Coyote Block 2 and Block 3 interceptors evolved from the Block 1 Coyote drone, which was launched from a canister to target other drones. These interceptors are comparatively cheap, coming in at about $125,000 each, with the Pentagon purchasing 600 more of them at a price of $75 million immediately after the Tower 22 attack. Although this price does not make the Coyote a good choice to counter small FPV drones, it's a good option for countering larger threats like the Iranian Shahid, which was used against Tower 22. These drones were supposedly priced in the $50,000 range, but in February 2024, a hacker group called the Prana Network stole data from the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The infiltration revealed that Russia purchased 6,000 Shahids at a price of $193,000 each. Since Russia purchased the drones in bulk, it was able to negotiate the unit price down from an original $375,000. Russia was apparently so strapped for cash that it decided to pay Iran in gold. The Coyote is an ideal way to destroy weapons like that. Unsurprisingly, the United States wants more of them, and they might soon become even more effective. The Block 2 is designed as a one-way weapon. Raytheon, the Coyote's manufacturer, says that the Block 3 model, which has been in testing since 2020, can be recovered and refurbished, extending its mission life. The Army has not been known to use the Block 3 yet, but they will soon come into play to help make the U.S. military the world's premier anti-drone force. But not all weapons are on the cutting edge. The U.S. military still uses a lot of weapons that are surprisingly old. That's because they're still effective. So aside from making necessary modifications, why throw the whole thing out and go through the much more expensive experience of building a new system from scratch? The Carl Gustav recoilless rifle is one such weapon. This clever device made its debut in the late 1940s as an improvement over the handheld anti-tank weapons of World War II. The addition of a rifled barrel made the rounds more accurate and negated the need for stabilizing fins like those seen on earlier anti-tank rounds like the Bazooka. This reduced the weight of the ammunition, even as the caliber grew larger, to 84 millimeters, giving the rounds more punching power. There are various rounds too, including high-explosive anti-tank, HEAT, rounds. The larger caliber didn't mean more recoil though. As its name implies, the Carl Gustav deals with the recoil problem by ejecting counter-mass from the weapon's rear, improving accuracy still further and reducing wear and tear on the operator's body. Its recoilless nature ensures an accurate firing rate of six rounds per minute against tanks up to 400 meters away and at buildings up to 700 meters away. The weapon is designed for a crew of two operators but can be used by only one. The Carl Gustav's basic design has remained the same all these years, but it's undergone important adaptations. In 2014, the new M4 version was introduced. Thanks to its titanium base, it has a lighter weight at 7 kilograms compared to the M3's 10 kilograms and the M2's 14.2. The M4 also has a shorter length, at under one meter compared to the M3's 1065 millimeters and the M2's 1130. The lighter weight and more compact length allow troops to take their Carl Gustav recoilless rifles with them almost anywhere, making it an ideal choice for tactical flexibility. Saab, the weapons manufacturer, saw the demands that the War on Terror had created on dismounted infantry and made these changes accordingly. The U.S. military adopted the M4 in 2017. However, the battlefields of Ukraine proved to be the real tell about the continued relevance of this seemingly archaic weapon. Before the war, the Russian military was supposed to be the world's premier tank force. For decades, NATO planners had been fearful of Soviet armored drives into Western Europe. However, much of this lingering nightmare proved to be a dream that would never come true, thanks to the efforts of Ukraine's soldiers. And it wasn't just because they were using state-of-the-art anti-tank weapons like the Javelin and NLAW. The old Carl Gustav continued to prove itself, making its first splash in dramatic fashion. Before the war, the T-90 was supposedly one of the world's most advanced main battle tanks. In actuality, it's a strange love child between the earlier T-72 and T-80 tanks. It comes with the same vulnerabilities, most notably a lack of a sealed ammunition compartment. Maybe unsurprisingly, in May 2022, a T-90M tank fell prey to a Carl Gustav recoilless rifle. The tank was totaled, revealing another virtue of this old-timer. The Carl Gustav can fulfill its mission on the cheap. The war in Ukraine has revealed how expensive modern ammunition can be, ammunition which gets depleted quickly. Javelin rounds cost six figures per shot. Carl Gustav rounds, though, cost between $500 and $3,000 per shot, depending on the type. The launcher itself is also modestly priced at around $20,000. The modern battlefield might seem to be all about state-of-the-art weapons and latest technology, but not all of it is. Intricate supply chains and expensive ammunition come with drawbacks in a high-intensity war. Dumb rounds and cheap weapons have revealed themselves as maintaining an important place, and so this retro weapon remains important in the arsenals of the US military and its allies, and will stay that way for years to come. Don't be surprised if the Carl Gustav is still in use over a century after its introduction. Old systems aren't only limited to the ground, though. One of the most potent of them is still in the skies 70 years after its introduction. America's bomber fleet is about to get a big upgrade with the B-21 Raider, which will replace the B-2 Spirit as the Air Force's stealth bomber. It will also replace the B-1 Lancer. The USAF brass has plans to order around 150 of these bombers, if not more, and they will begin taking to the skies in the 2030s. Since there are only 19 operational B-2s, these will be comparatively easy to retire, and the Air Force plans to do that by 2032. The Air Force plans to phase out the B-1 quickly after the Raider's introduction too, removing it from service by 2036. However, the Raider won't be replacing America's fleet of B-52 bombers so quickly. Over 700 B-52 bombers have been built, and though old, these aircraft are versatile. They can carry up to 70,000 pounds of ordnance. They can also fly up to 8,800 miles without needing to refuel in the air. That means the B-52 can take off from a base and reach a target almost anywhere in the world, since Earth has a diameter of about 7,900 miles. Air-launched cruise missiles give the B-52 even greater range. In the mid-2010s, the B-52 started to get its latest round of upgrades. These upgrades included a new radio. This is the AN-ARC-210. The new radio operates at frequencies between 30 and 512 MHz, and covers the UHF and VHF bands, with AM, FM, and satellite communications. The new radio is software reprogrammable, enabling it to more easily adapt to emerging environments. This software is in line with the National Security Agency's Cryptographic Modernization Initiative, which launched as an effort to upgrade and ensure the security of all Department of Defense communications platforms. The radio maintains secure transfer of data, including voice and imagery, and has an Ethernet port at its back so that it can participate in networked warfare. Because of this, the B-52 can receive up-to-date targeting information. Since B-52s and other bombers often fly on long-duration missions, the new equipment gives the crew room to adapt if the target information has changed since their aircraft took off from the runway. The radio is also resistant to jamming, thanks to its embedded anti-jam waveforms like Havquick and SyncGars. The new radios aren't the only upgrades. In 2021, it was announced that the B-52 would be getting an even bigger overhaul, starting with the engines. Since 1962, the Stratofortress has been using the Pratt & Whitney TF-33 engine, but this venerable system will soon be replaced with the Rolls-Royce F-130. The new engines will be set higher to provide more ground clearance. The B-52's nose will also be redesigned to make way for a new radar, the AN-APG-79 AESA radar. It's the same kind of radar used by the F-A-18 Super Hornet, and it's the first radar to use gallium nitride, which is a substance that can better tolerate extreme temperatures. The new radar will occupy much less space than the mechanically scanned radar system it's replacing, so the B-52 will be able to carry even more electronic warfare systems in return for the freed space. The cockpit will be upgraded to a hybrid control and navigational system with digital and analog features. New pylons and generators will also be part of this upgrade. At least some existing B-52 bombers will get all of these upgrades, which constitute the largest modification program in the aircraft's history by the end of the decade. Once they do, they will be called the B-52J variety. These investments reveal that the Air Force plans to keep the B-52 in its bomber fleet for a while yet. The B-21 may replace it one day, but the B-52 is set to outlive both of the aircraft that initially intended to replace it, as the B-1 and B-2 will be retired first. Thanks to the upgrades, such as those which will produce the B-52J, the Pentagon expects the Stratofortress to serve into the 2050s, 100 years after it was introduced. Old age won't stop it from being able to deal with modern threats, though, thanks to its adaptable design. Whether they're based on old platforms or on the cutting edge, the arsenal of the United States military shows its flexibility and responsiveness to modern threat environments. If the dress rehearsal in Ukraine is anything to go by, America's near-peer adversaries should think twice before starting a fight. What other weapons might be coming soon to the US military's arsenal? What will the renewed emphasis on cost-effectiveness bring? Don't forget to let us know in the comments. 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