(In Pics) Six Crazy Military Inventions of the Cold War

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The Cold War, which ran between roughly the end of the Second World War in 1945 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, was a period unlike any other in human history. Never before had two rivals faced off against each other with the whole world as their battleground, and with the power to wipe out the human race at the touch of a button.

Spurred by innovation coming from the six years fighting against Hitler, many new designs, techniques and materials had been developed, crowned by the atomic bomb. But with an entirely new geopolitical situation and entirely new options in terms of R&D, researchers sometimes went down strange paths in their search for an effective weapon of war.

Here are six proposals to come out of the Cold War which were, looking back, a little strange.

1. The Ryan X-13 Vertijet

*Straight out of something like* Thunderbirds, the Vertijet was developed at the request of the *US Navy*, who were investigating VTOL solutions. The jet would be mounted on the ground with the nose facing the sky, which would allow for quick deployment from a small platform. While it worked, it was to some extent answering a question nobody had asked, and the Navy would continue to use other *aircraft* *(Unknown Author /* *Public Domain*)

2. The Bartini Beriev VVA-14

*Meanwhile the* *Soviets* *were coming up with their own ideas. Soviet “Ekranoplans”, including a giant version dubbed the* *Caspian Sea Monster*, were designed to transport huge cargo weights through the air by staying close to the ground and utilizing something called “ground effect”. The VVA-14 was intended to be able to also fly at altitude, and who knows where Ekranoplan technology could have gone were it not abandoned (Mike1979 Russia / *CC BY-SA 3.0*)

3. The M-29 Davy Crockett

*Another answer to a question nobody was asking, the Davy Crockett solved the problem of not being close enough to your nuclear explosions. This was a man-portable* *battlefield* *mortar designed to launch projectiles against… whatever you like, since it has a nuclear warhead attached. The* US actually built this one, and Davy Crockett units were held in reserve from 1961 to 1971 (US Government DOD DOE / *Public Domain*)

4. Obiekt 279

*When western analysts, poring over high-altitude pictures of* *Soviet* bases, saw something they didn’t recognize, they classified it as an “Obiekt” or “Object”. Many of these turned out to be experimental tanks, such as Obiekt 279, the tank you would take with you on the Paris-Dakar rally. Four tracks and a specially shaped hull made it an awesome cross-country performer, able to move through a wide variety of terrain without becoming trapped (Alf van Beem / *Public Domain*)

5. Project Orion

*Stop me if any of this worries new: in the 1950s and 1960s* *United States* *scientists were looking at* *spacecraft* design and needed a propellant with a high thrust to weight ratio to get their rockets where they needed them to go. Their solution was to detonate a series of nuclear bombs at the bottom of the craft in what was called a “nuclear pulse engine”. The crew would be insulated from the fallout, but anything underneath would not… (NASA / *Public Domain*)

6. The Tsar Bomba

*This is the big one, the largest atomic bomb ever made. The Soviets actually detonated it in 1961 on a testing range in northern* *Russia*, creating the largest man-made explosion in history at 50 megatons (although the Soviets wanted a blast twice as big). The shockwave circled the earth three times and was followed by a shift in the Earth’s crust through *seismic pressure. The* *aircraft* *that dropped the bomb itself barely escaped the blast (Liosha666 /* *CC BY-SA 4.0*)

Top Image: The Cold War saw many new weapons systems and inventions tried and tested, some more success than others (United States DOD / Public Domain).

By Joseph Green

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Joseph Green

Joseph Green is editor for Historic Mysteries, which combines his background in English Literature with a lifelong fascination for the strange and the unexplained. Read More