Showing posts with label Weapon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Weapon. Show all posts
BIGGEST MILITARY TRANSPORT PLANE: ANTONOV AN-124 RUSLAN, RUSSIA
Available for both military and civilian purposes, the An-124 is described as the biggest serial heavy lifter in the world. The aircraft is capable of transporting a large number of specialised vehicles and heavy cargo. Kept aloft by four Ivchenko Progress D-18T turbofans, the An-124 can carry a payload of up to 120 tonnes.
LARGEST UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE (UAV): RQ-4 GLOBAL HAWK
The Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk is the world’s largest unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or drone. It is mainly used for surveillance and can stay aloft for more than 32 hours without needing to land. In a day it can survey as much as 1 lakh square km of terrain.
LARGEST SUBMARINE: TYPHOON-CLASS SUBMARINE, RUSSIA
With a submerged displacement of 48,000 tons, Russia's Typhoon-class submarines are the largest ever built. The sub is powered by 2 pressurised-water nuclear reactor and can carry a crew of 150 people. It is also armed with 6 torpedo tubes and 20 ballistic missiles.
FASTEST MILITARY HELICOPTER: BOEING CH-47 CHINOOK, USA
With a number of faster and lighter helicopters set to steal its crown (such as the Sikorsky S-97 Raider) the current record holder for fastest military helicopter belongs to Boeing's CH-47 Chinook. The Tandem rotor helicopter first entered service back in the 1960s and is capable of achieving a top speed of 170 knots (315 km/h). A true all-round performer the Chinook can also carry up to 12,700 kg of cargo or 55 personnel.
LONGEST RANGE SNIPER RIFLE: ACCURACY INTERNATIONAL L115A3 RIFLE, UK
With a confirmed kill at a staggering distance of 2,475 metres, the L115A3 holds the record for the longest shot in history. To further add to the weapon's mythical status, this was the same gun used by another British sniper in Afghanistan to kill six insurgents with a single bullet after the bullet hit the trigger switch of a suicide bomber's explosive device.
HIGHEST RATE OF FIRE FOR A GUN WITH MULTIPLE-BARREL: M134 MINIGUN, USA
The six-barreled M134D Minigun is capable of firing 3,000 rounds per minute. Designed to be aircraft or vehicle mounted, the belt-fed weapon is currently in use by US and Allied armed forces.
LARGEST TANK: PANZER VIII MAUS, GERMANY
Germany's Panzer VIII Maus was designed during World War II by Porsche. The heaviest fully-enclosed armoured vehicle ever made, the 10.2-metre-long tank weighed in at a staggering 180 tonnes - making it unable to cross most bridges. Dogged by design issues, only one of these battlefield giants ever got completed.
FASTEST MANNED MILITARY AIRCRAFT: X-15, USA
Manufactured by North American Aviation Inc., the X-15 experimental aircraft was launched from under the wing of a specially converted bomber and became a record-breaking flying machine. On November 9, 1961, test pilot Robert M. White achieved the top speed of 4,520 miles per hour (7,274 km/h), or Mach 6.72, a record that still stands to this day. In August 1963, test pilot Joseph A. Walker took the X-51 to an altitude of 107.8 km, automatically earning him his astronaut's wings.
FASTEST MILITARY CRAFT: SKJOLD-CLASS CORVETTE, NORWAY
Capable of achieving speeds of 60 knots (110 kmph), the Royal Norwegian Navy's Skjod class coastal corvettes is the fastest armed craft in the world.
MOST EXPENSIVE BATTLE TANK: AMX-56 LECLERC, FRANCE
The US $10 million (approximately) tank is used by the armies of France and United Arab Emirates. The tank has played crucial roles in several peacekeeping missions around the world. It is armed with a GIAT CN120-26/52 120mm tank gun which is capable of firing 40 rounds.
MOST HEAVILY ARMED SHIP: YAMATO-CLASS BATTLESHIP, JAPAN
The World War II-era Imperial Japanese Navy Yamato-class battleships still hold the record for the most heavily armed vessels to ever put to sea. Mounted with nine 460-millimetre (18.1 inch) naval guns, six forward and three aft – clustered into two three-barrel fore turrets and one aft, the battleships were capable of hurling a terrifying barrage of 1,360 kg shells over 42 km towards their intended targets.
HIGHEST ALTITUDE ATTAINED BY MILITARY PLANE: MIG 25 ‘FOXBAT’, RUSSIA
On August 31, 1977 Russian pilot Alexandr Fedotov set the record for highest altitude attained by a manned flight launched from the ground when he flew his MiG YE-155 (a experimental version of the MiG 25) to a height of 125,523 feet.
MOST EXPENSIVE MILITARY PLANE EVER MADE: B-2 SPIRIT BOMBER, USA
The exuberant cost – US $2.2 billion per unit - of what went on to become the 'stealth bomber' forced the Congress to cut its purchase order from 132 to 21 in 1987. According to Northrop Grumman, the company responsible for manufacturing the B-2, its radar-cloaking technologies make it capable of penetrating the most sophisticated of the enemy defences.
WORLD'S MOST WIDELY USED WEAPON: AK47 ASSAULT RIFLE
The assault rifle, owing to its extreme durability and simplicity, has become one of the most widely used weapons across the world. The weapon is officially being used by the armed forces of 80 countries. It is estimated that there are currently 100 million AK47s in circulation around the globe.
LARGEST AIRCRAFT CARRIER: NIMITZ-CLASS, US NAVY
The US Navy's mammoth Nimitz-class carriers tower 20 stories above water and at 332.8 metres are nearly as long as the Empire State Building is high. But sometimes big can present problems, such as on a recent visit to the UK when the USS Theodore Roosevelt, nicknamed The Big Stick, had to moor off the coast of Solent, as it was too big to dock at Portsmouth's Royal Navy base.
Displacing a colossal 100,000 plus tons and with 4.5 acres of flight deck, the super-carriers are capable of carrying 80 combat aircraft and a ships complement of 3200. The ship is stocked with food supplies for 90 days and every day serves 18,150 meals.
BIGGEST RIFLED WEAPON EVER FIRED: SCHWERER GUSTAV, GERMANY
The Schwerer Gustav (meaning Great Gustav) was an 80 cm railway gun manufactured by the Krupp family company in the 1930s. Gustav and his sister gun Dora (a model of which is pictured here) each weighed in at over 1350 tonnes, and used their 47.3-metre-long barrels to fire 7-ton heavy projectiles a distance of 47 km on Hitler's Eastern Front.
LARGEST MILITARY AIRCRAFT CEMETERY: THE BONEYARD, USA
The 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, often called the Boneyard, is United States Air Force’s (USAF) one such aircraft and missile storage and maintenance facility in Tucson, Arizona. The 11 square kilometre site accommodates over 4,200 aircraft worth US $35 billion, making it the largest in the world.
MOST POWERFUL NUCLEAR WEAPONS EVER DETONATED: TSAR BOMBA (RDS-220 HYDROGEN BOMB), SOVIET UNION
The Tsar Bomba was exploded by the Soviet Union on October 31, 1961 over Novaya Zemlya Island in the Russian Arctic Sea. The resulting explosion was equivalent to 50 Mt of TNT, or to simultaneous detonation of 3,800 Hiroshima bombs.
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