Kalashnikov assault rifle and RPG-7 hand grenade launcher were among the five deadliest weapons systems in the world, compiled by 19fortyfive. They were accompanied by the first machine gun, a bomber of the Second World War and a drone.
The American-British gunsmith Hiram Maxim created a weapon that radically changed the course of military operations. The machine gun, which received the name of the creator, used several breakthrough technologies at once: smokeless gunpowder, a machine and tape-fed ammunition. The weapon, which appeared in 1884, was brought to perfection by the beginning of the First World War, where all its advantages (along with the disadvantages of infantry tactics of frontal attack) manifested themselves. On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, German machine guns destroyed more than 20,000 British soldiers. In the first half of the XX century, the Maxim machine gun was adopted by at least 29 countries.
The American B-17 Flying Fortress bomber dominated the Western Front and the Pacific during World War II. It was the first American all-metal heavy bomber, a total of 12.7 thousand aircraft were built. A solid combat load - up to three tons - an excellent sight and powerful defensive weapons made the B-17 a formidable weapon, and the tactics of sorties accompanied by P-51 Mustang fighters allowed to minimize combat losses. In addition, the aircraft was an engineering miracle: only a year passed from the drawings to the first flight.
Created in 1947, the Kalashnikov assault rifle has become a legend of the weapons world. Powerful, simple and reliable, it is insensitive to water, dust and dirt, works equally well in heat and frost, and a 7.62 mm bullet with a high initial velocity has an excellent stopping effect. The bore, chamber, exhaust chamber and its piston are chrome-plated, which makes the weapon resistant to corrosion.
The RPG-7 rocket launcher is also easy to use. You just have to put it on your shoulder and shoot. The weight of the loaded weapon is a little more than six kilograms. The grenade launcher, which proved its effectiveness during the Vietnam War, has become a favorite means of fighting armored vehicles in different parts of the world for many decades. To destroy the tank, a pair of grenade launchers hit it in the rear or demolished the optics from the tower, then knocked down the tracks and finally burned through the armor with cumulative ammunition, causing detonation of ammunition.
The MQ-1 Predator drone was originally a reconnaissance drone. It entered service in the mid-90s, during the war in the Balkans. Then he got Hellfire missiles and it changed the world again. The first drone strike was carried out in 2002 in Yemen, where a missile launched from a drone destroyed a car with terrorists. Then Predator was actively used in Afghanistan to hunt for Taliban and al-Qaeda militants (banned in the Russian Federation). In 2018, it was replaced by a more powerful MQ-9 Reaper drone.
Anton Valagin
