Military Vehicles
TRANSPORT
HEAVIEST
FIFTH-GENERATION
FIGHTER BY
TAKE-OFF WEIGHT
Fifth-gen fighters
possess advanced
avionics and all-
aspect stealth
capabilities. As
of 2016, there
were only three
types (although
Russian and Chinese
prototypes also
exist), all produced by
Lockheed Martin: the
F-22 Raptor, F-35B
Lightning II and
F-35A Lightning II.
The F-22 Raptor is
the heaviest, with a
fully loaded take-off
weight of 38,000 kg
(83,775 lb). The USA
has banned its export
to protect its design.Truk Lagoon in the Pacific is home to the wrecks of more than 30 Japanese
warships sunk during the US offensive Operation Hailstone during WWII.
Leonardo da Vinci
designed a fighting
vehicle in 1487 inspired
by the shell of a turtleAircraft-related systemsFirst tank
Built by William Foster & Co. Ltd of
Lincolnshire, UK, the No.1 Lincoln
first ran in early Sep 1915 and
became known as Little Willie. Tanks first saw
action a little over a year later, at the Battle of
Flers-Courcelette in France on 15 Sep 1916. The
Mark I “Male” tank was developed from Little
Willie and was part of the Heavy Section, Machine
Gun Corps (now the Royal Tank Regiment). It
was armed with a pair of 6-pounder guns and
four machine guns and weighed 28.4 tonnes
(62,611 lb), while its 105-hp (78-kW) motor gave
it a top road speed of 3–4 mph (4.8–6.4 km/h).
The oldest tank design was created by
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519). The Italian artist
and inventor drafted an early concept for a
wheeled, wood-covered machine with provision
for outward-facing guns (see panel, right).Highest rate of tank production
The M-4 Sherman battle tank was first rolled out
by the USA in 1942, at the height of World War II.
Designed with ease of production, reliability and
maintenance in mind, more than 48,000 units
were turned out over a three-year period.Heaviest tank
First built in 1923, the 75-tonne (165,346-lb),
12 - man Char de Rupture 2C bis was a French
tank that carried a 15.5-cm (6.1-in) howitzer.
Powered by two 250-hp (186-kW) engines, it
had a maximum speed of 12 km/h (7.5 mph).
An even heavier tank was developed by
the Germans during World War II, although it
never saw active service. Tipping the scales at
188 tonnes (414,469 lb), the Panzerkampfwagen
VIII Maus (“Mouse”) was two-and-a-half times
heavier than a Space Shuttle. By 1945, only
two prototypes of the Maus existed. They were
obtained by Soviet forces, who paired the hull
of one machine with the turret of the other.
The combined vehicle is now on display
at Kubinka Tank Museum in Russia.Largest gun
In the siege of Sevastopol in the USSR (now
Ukraine) in Jul 1942, German forces used a gun
with a calibre of 80 cm (31.5 in), incorporating
a barrel 32.5 m (106 ft 7 in) long. Internally it
was named Schwerer Gustav. The complete
assembly of the gun was 42.9 m (141 ft) long
and weighed 1,344 tonnes (2,963,000 lb).
The range for a 4.8-tonne (10,582-lb)
projectile was 46.7km (29 mi).Longest-range infantry fighting vehicle
Combat Vehicle 90 (CV90) is a series of tracked
armoured infantry fighting vehicles designed
for the Swedish armed forces and produced
by BAE Systems. Each carries a crew of three,
plus eight troops, and has a 40-mm (1.57-in)
Bofors Autocannon as its main armament. Since
development began in 1984, improvements
have led to the CV90 Armadillo variant boasting
a maximum on-road range of up to 900 km
(559 mi) and a top speed of 68 km/h (42 mph).Largest cruiser fleet
With the battleship’s demise in the latter half
of the 20th century, cruisers are the largest
class of surface combat ship in use today. Three
nations have cruisers in active service: the USA,
with 22; Russia, with three; and Peru, which has
one. The cruisers operated by the US Navy are
all of the Ticonderoga guided-missile class. Their
armament includes a vertical launch system
for surface-to-air, cruise, anti-submarine and
anti-ship missiles.Most expensive military
aircraft (programme)
By 2012, costs of the Lockheed Martin F-35
Lightning Joint Strike Fighter had escalated to
$336.1 bn (£207 bn). The 50-year, multinational
programme has an estimated cost for the USA
of $0.85–1.5 tr (£530–927 bn) over the course
of its lifetime.
The most expensive military aircraft
(per unit) is the US-made Northrop Grumman
B-2 Spirit. The stealth bomber, which can deploy
both conventional and thermonuclear weapons,
costs in excess of $1.3 bn (£780 m) per unit.Most expensive supercarrier
Scheduled for commission in 2017, the
USS Gerald R Ford cost $13 bn (£8.1 bn) to
build. The 1,092–ft (332.8-m) carrier, which can
support 75 fighter planes, is equipped with a new
type of catapult, the Electromagnetic Aircraft
Launch System (EMALS). It can launch up to
220 airstrikes a day from its two runways.Q: How many tanks fought
in the first tank vs tank
battle on 24 Apr 1918?
A: SixLARGEST ROCKET ARTILLERY BY TUBE COUNT
First unveiled in 2013, the Jobaria (“Monster”) Defense
Systems Multiple Cradle Launcher is a 122-mm
(4.8-in) rocket artillery system developed by
the UAE and Turkish contractor
Roketsan. The Jobaria’s
10-wheel semitrailer supports
four rocket launchers with
a total of 240 rockets
with a maximum range
of around 37 km (23 mi).
One full salvo from the
Jobaria can devastate an
area of 4 km^2 (1.5 sq mi).2015 US military budgets,
by investments:Shipbuilding/
maritime systemsMissiles/munition/
missile defenceC4I systems (Command,
Control, Communications,
Computers and Intelligence)Space systems$40 bn
$22 bn
$17.2 bn
$6.6 bn
$6.2 bn
The
Maus tank
was too heavy to
cross bridges. It was
proposed that it would
ford rivers in pairs, with
one tank providing the
other with electric power
via a cable, and air
supplied through a
large snorkel.
Highest military budgets
for 2015:
USA: $596 bnChina: $215 bnSaudi Arabia: $87.2 bnRussia: $66.4 bnUK: $55.5 bn
= $50 bnDuring World War II, the
British briefly considered
building a battleship using
pykrete – a material made
by combining sawdust (or
wood pulp) with ice=