Department
Military
Weapons, defense and the hardware of war. 46 case files (8 cross-filed from other departments).
DID YOUKNOW?Dragon DronesDD-757
Dragon Drones
Dragon drones are drones, typically modified first-person-view (FPV) types, that release burning thermite over positions; Ukrainian forces used them in the Russo-Ukrainian war, and they were first widely documented in 2024. Thermite burns at temperatures above 2,200 degrees Celsius, producing showers of molten metal. The footage, credited to HowThingsWork_, shows a drone dropping burning thermite over a field and buildings.
DID YOUKNOW?Munitions ManagementDD-756
Munitions Management
Armed forces, including the U.S. military, accumulate excess, obsolete or unserviceable ammunition during long deployments. Because it can't be discarded like ordinary waste, it is handed to disposal specialists, explosive ordnance disposal technicians and ammunition specialists, who destroy it through controlled detonation or open burning. The footage, credited to Historic Vids, shows service members unpacking ammunition and a controlled detonation.
DID YOUKNOW?Shoot-and-ScootDD-736
Shoot-and-Scoot
The NORA-B52 is a 155 mm, 52-caliber self-propelled gun-howitzer made by Serbia's state-owned Yugoimport-SDPR, mounted on 8x8 truck chassis (KAMAZ and MAN). According to the manufacturer, ranges are 32.5 km with ERFB rounds, 41.5 km with base-bleed rounds and up to 52 km with V-LAP rounds, at up to 4 rounds per minute. The newest NG ('Perun') variant, shown in 2023, is operated from the cab and has a fully automatic loader holding 30 rounds plus 6 more on the vehicle. The M21 variant on a MAN chassis has 12 rounds in its autoloader, plus 24 stowed.
DID YOUKNOW?Iranian Missile CitiesDD-733
Iranian Missile Cities
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has publicized underground 'missile cities' in state-released videos. In March 2025 it showed a large facility where Iranian media said missiles including Sejjil, Qadr-H and Kheibar Shekan were stored. Analysts at The War Zone noted that the munitions appeared to sit in open galleries with few blast doors. During the June 2025 Israel-Iran war, analysts at ISW reported that Israeli strikes destroyed launch sites and tunnel entrances at several missile bases. In November 2025, Iran's passive-defense chief said the underground infrastructure was largely intact. Many details can't be independently verified.
DID YOUKNOW?Mobile MortarsDD-021
Mobile Mortars
A mortar is a light, smoothbore tube that a small crew can carry and set up on a bipod and baseplate. A round dropped down the muzzle hits a fixed firing pin at the bottom, which sets off its propellant charge and throws it out at a steep angle (generally above 45 degrees). That high arc lets mortars hit targets behind hills or cover that the crew can't see.
DID YOUKNOW?AndurilDD-727
Anduril
Anduril Industries was incorporated on April 20, 2017, by Palmer Luckey (creator of the Oculus Rift), Trae Stephens, Matt Grimm, Joe Chen and Brian Schimpf (now CEO). It's based in Costa Mesa, California. Its Lattice software fuses data from Anduril's own and third-party sensors and is the core of its products, which range from Sentry surveillance towers used on the U.S.–Mexico border to Ghost and Altius drones, Roadrunner and Barracuda interceptors and missiles, Ghost Shark autonomous submarines and the Fury (YFQ-44A) collaborative combat aircraft, first flown on October 31, 2025. Unlike traditional contractors paid to develop to a Pentagon requirement, it builds products on its own money and then sells them. A $5 billion raise in May 2026 valued it at $61 billion, and 2025 revenue was reported at about $2.2 billion. It also has critics: the WSJ reported test setbacks, including a Navy exercise in which more than a dozen Lattice-controlled drone boats failed, and civil-liberties groups have criticized its border towers.
DID YOUKNOW?Not So WellDD-719
Not So Well
In early 1991, retreating Iraqi forces set fire to Kuwaiti oil wells. Estimates of the number range from 605 to 732, and the U.S. government counted 610 burning out of 752 damaged wells. At their peak, the fires burned an estimated 4-6 million barrels of oil a day. Firefighting crews from 28 countries began work in April, and the last well was capped on November 6, 1991. Unburned oil formed lakes, estimated at more than 100 to about 300, and the soot and gases degraded regional air quality. Hardened 'tarcrete' crusts and oil-soaked soil left contamination that persisted for decades.
DID YOUKNOW?EKV: Exoatmospheric Kill VehicleDD-011
EKV: Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle
The Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) is the business end of America's Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system. A three-stage Ground-Based Interceptor rocket lofts it out of the atmosphere. There it separates, picks out the warhead with a multi-color infrared sensor and its own computers, and steers with divert thrusters into a head-on collision. It carries no explosive warhead. Telling warheads from decoys has always been its hardest problem. A planned replacement kill vehicle was cancelled in 2019, and Lockheed Martin is now building the Next Generation Interceptor.
DID YOUKNOW?Atomic AnnieDD-004
Atomic Annie
In the Grable test (May 25, 1953, Nevada), the 83-ton M65 Atomic Cannon fired the only nuclear artillery shell in history.
DID YOUKNOW?Gassed Up...Way UpDD-711
Gassed Up...Way Up
Aerial refueling moves fuel from a tanker to another aircraft in flight. The first successful transfer took place on June 27, 1923, over Rockwell Field in San Diego. Two US Army Air Service DH-4B biplanes used a 50-foot hose to pass about 75 gallons, according to the National Museum of the US Air Force. Today there are two main methods. With probe and drogue, the tanker trails a hose ending in a basket and the receiver flies its probe into it. The US Navy, the Marine Corps, many allied air forces and helicopters use this method. With the flying boom, a boom operator on the tanker steers a rigid telescoping tube into a receptacle on the receiver. That's the standard for US Air Force aircraft. Some tankers carry both.
DID YOUKNOW?USS Gerald R. FordDD-710
USS Gerald R. Ford
USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) is the lead ship of the US Navy's newest class of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. It was delivered on May 31, 2017, and commissioned on July 22, 2017, at Naval Station Norfolk. According to the Congressional Research Service, its two A1B reactors give it about three times the electrical generating capacity of a Nimitz-class carrier. The class is designed for a sortie rate about 33% higher than the Nimitz class, with about 700 fewer shipboard crew. New systems include EMALS electromagnetic catapults, Advanced Arresting Gear and electromagnetic weapons elevators. Pentagon testers and the GAO have reported reliability problems and delays with several of them. The ship's first full deployment came in 2023.
DID YOUKNOW?B52 StratofortressDD-708
B52 Stratofortress
The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress first flew on April 15, 1952, and entered US Air Force service in 1955. Boeing built 744, and the last B-52H was delivered in 1962. Only the B-52H model is still flying. The Air Force fact sheet lists a payload of about 70,000 lb of mixed weapons and a 185 ft wingspan, with eight engines in four paired pods. It was built for high-altitude nuclear missions and was later adapted for low-level flight, conventional bombing and cruise missiles. Under the Commercial Engine Replacement Program, the Air Force plans to fit Rolls-Royce F130 engines and a new radar, rename the aircraft the B-52J and keep it in service into the 2050s. On June 15, 2026, a B-52H radar test aircraft crashed on takeoff at Edwards Air Force Base, killing all eight crew members. As of July 2026, the cause was under investigation.
DID YOUKNOW?Supersonic StrikerDD-036
Supersonic Striker
The B-1 began as the Mach 2 B-1A, which was canceled in 1977. It was revived in 1981 as the B-1B, a stealthier and heavier interim bomber, while the B-2 was delayed. Rockwell delivered all 100 B-1Bs between 1985 and 1988, and the type reached initial operating capability on nuclear alert in October 1986. Its wings sweep from 15° (137 ft span) back to 67.5° (79 ft). Top speed is about Mach 1.2. The U.S. dropped the B-1's nuclear mission in 1994, and its nuclear hardware was stripped out by March 2011 under New START, with Russian inspectors verifying it. Today it's a conventional-only bomber, nicknamed the 'Bone'.
DID YOUKNOW?EkranoplanDD-704
Ekranoplan
The Project 903 Lun was a Soviet wing-in-ground-effect craft from Rostislav Alexeyev's design bureau, built as a fast anti-ship missile carrier. Only one, MD-160, was completed. It was about 73.8 m long with a 44 m wingspan, weighed about 380 tonnes at takeoff, and carried six P-270 Moskit (SS-N-22) anti-ship missiles in pairs on its back. Eight Kuznetsov NK-87 turbofans on forward pylons blew air under the wings for takeoff. Published maximum speeds are about 500 to 550 km/h (about 310 to 340 mph). A CIA assessment quoted by The Aviationist gave about 250 knots. It entered trial service in the late 1980s or 1990, sources vary, and sat unused at Kaspiysk from the late 1990s. On July 31, 2020, it was towed to Derbent, Dagestan, for a planned Patriot Park display.
DID YOUKNOW?Cannikin QuakeDD-026
Cannikin Quake
On November 6, 1971, the Atomic Energy Commission set off Cannikin 5,875 feet beneath Amchitka Island in Alaska's Aleutians. The test proved the W71 warhead for the Spartan anti-ballistic missile. Its yield was officially 'less than five megatons', making it the largest underground nuclear test the United States has ever conducted. It shook the ground like a magnitude-7 earthquake, lifted the land and nearby seafloor, and caused rockfalls. Seismometers worldwide recorded it. Protests against the test launched the group that became Greenpeace.
DID YOUKNOW?Sending EMALSDD-025
Sending EMALS
Carrier jets don't have room for a runway, so a catapult does the work. A shuttle in the deck hooks the launch bar on the jet's nose gear and drags the plane to flying speed in about two seconds. The Nimitz-class fleet still uses C-13 steam catapults, which push the shuttle with steam-driven pistons. The new Ford class (USS Gerald R. Ford, CVN 78, and the carriers after it) uses EMALS, the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System from General Atomics. It replaces the steam with a linear induction motor fed by energy stored in spinning generator rotors.
DID YOUKNOW?XB-70 ValkyrieDD-048
XB-70 Valkyrie
North American Aviation designed the B-70 in the late 1950s as a six-engine, delta-winged nuclear bomber that would cruise its whole mission at Mach 3 and about 70,000 feet, too fast and high for the Soviet interceptors of the day. Soviet surface-to-air missiles, which shot down Gary Powers's U-2 in 1960, and the rise of ICBMs undercut that idea, and President Kennedy canceled the bomber in March 1961. Two XB-70A prototypes were completed as research aircraft. AV-1 first flew on September 21, 1964. The aircraft rode its own shock wave for 'compression lift', drooped its wingtips up to 65° at speed, and reached Mach 3.08 and 74,000 ft. On June 8, 1966, AV-2 was lost after an F-104 chase plane collided with it during a GE publicity photo flight. NASA pilot Joe Walker and USAF Maj. Carl Cross were killed. AV-1 flew research missions until 1969 and is now at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.
DID YOUKNOW?Ballistic TridentDD-627
Ballistic Trident
The Trident II D5 is a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) built by Lockheed Martin for the U.S. Navy. It has three solid-propellant stages and inertial guidance. It is 44 ft (13.41 m) long and weighs about 130,000 lb (58,500 kg). The Navy lists its range as 4,000 nautical miles (about 7,360 km), and other sources note that range depends on payload. It can carry several independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs). The missile was first deployed in 1990. Expanding gas pushes it out of the launch tube, and the rocket motors fire once it breaks the surface. Under U.S. Navy listings, each Ohio-class submarine carries 20 D5 missiles and each British Vanguard-class submarine carries 16. The United Kingdom didn't co-develop the missile. It agreed in 1982 to buy Trident II under the Polaris Sales Agreement. According to the UK Parliament, Britain has title to 58 missiles, held in a shared pool with U.S. missiles at Kings Bay, Georgia, while the UK makes its own warheads. A life-extended version (D5LE) joined the fleet in 2017 and is set to arm the next U.S. Columbia-class and UK Dreadnought-class submarines.
DID YOUKNOW?RaytheonDD-621
Raytheon
Raytheon is one of RTX Corporation's three business segments, alongside Collins Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney. The company began in 1922 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as the American Appliance Company, founded by Laurence K. Marshall, Vannevar Bush and Charles G. Smith. Its first hit product was a gas-filled rectifier tube, named Raytheon ('light from the gods'), that let radios run on household current instead of batteries. The company took the tube's name and grew through radar and microwave work, including the first microwave ovens. In April 2020, Raytheon Company merged with United Technologies to form Raytheon Technologies, which renamed itself RTX in 2023. Today the Raytheon segment makes air and missile defense systems such as Patriot, the AN/SPY-6 family of naval radars, missiles and sensors. RTX reported Raytheon's 2024 net sales at $26.7 billion, with growth from Patriot, NASAMS and counter-drone programs. Raytheon's own site lists more than 52,000 employees, and in 2024 it sold its cybersecurity, intelligence and services business. RTX as a whole has a backlog of about $218 billion. The footage is corporate promotional video: control rooms, a missile launch, lab work and a Raytheon sign.
DID YOUKNOW?The Iron DomeDD-606
The Iron Dome
Iron Dome is a mobile short-range air defense system built by Israel's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems with Israel Aerospace Industries. According to Wikipedia, it is designed to intercept rockets and artillery shells fired from about 4 to 70 km away. A battery has three parts. The EL/M-2084 radar, built by Elta, detects a launch and tracks its path. A battle-management center, built by mPrest, predicts where the rocket will land and fires only at those headed for populated or protected areas. Three or four launchers each hold 20 Tamir interceptors, which carry electro-optic sensors and steering fins. Rafael says the Tamir has a special warhead that detonates the target's warhead in the air. In a 2015 drone test, some targets were destroyed by the proximity warhead and others by a direct hit. Iron Dome was declared operational near Beersheba on March 27, 2011, and made its first interception on April 7, 2011. The United States contributed $1.6 billion from 2011 to 2021 and approved another $1 billion in 2022. Success rates are disputed. Rafael says more than 90%. Israeli military figures reviewed by Michael Armstrong (2018) were about 85% in 2012 and about 90% in 2014. Those rates count only rockets the system chose to engage. Critics, including MIT's Theodore Postol and Richard Lloyd, argued from video and damage analysis that far fewer warheads were destroyed. Armstrong reports that proponents dispute those methods. Rafael has also offered a naval version, C-Dome, unveiled in 2014.
DID YOUKNOW?Northrop GrummanDD-604
Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman is a US aerospace and defense company based in Falls Church, Virginia. Its 2025 annual report (Form 10-K) says the company began in 1939 in Hawthorne, California, as Northrop Aircraft Incorporated, founded by Jack Northrop. Northrop Corporation was a principal developer of flying-wing designs, which, according to the company's heritage page, led to the B-2 stealth bomber. In 1994 it acquired the Grumman Corporation, which built the Apollo Lunar Module, and the combined company was renamed Northrop Grumman. The heritage page lists more than 20 companies it has since absorbed, including Westinghouse's defense electronics business (1996), Litton (2001), TRW (2002), Scaled Composites (2007) and Orbital ATK (2018). The 10-K reports 2025 sales of $41.954 billion, about 84% of them to the US government, and about 95,000 employees. It lists the B-21 Raider long-range strike bomber for the US Air Force and support for the B-2 Spirit among its key programs. For NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, launched on December 25, 2021, Northrop Grumman was the prime contractor. It designed and built the deployable sunshield, provided the spacecraft and integrated the whole observatory. NASA describes the sunshield as five layers of Kapton coated with reflective metal, each thinner than a human hair, about the size of a tennis court. The Reel uses company footage, including a hangar with aircraft, a holographic globe, an underwater drone, a cleanroom and a satellite.
DID YOUKNOW?Hypersonic MissilesDD-059
Hypersonic Missiles
The Congressional Research Service defines hypersonic weapons as maneuvering weapons that fly at Mach 5 or faster, roughly a mile per second. They come in two types: glide vehicles boosted by a rocket, and cruise missiles powered by air-breathing scramjets. Ballistic missile warheads also exceed Mach 5. What sets hypersonic weapons apart is maneuvering and a lower, flatter flight path, which ground radars may not detect until late. CBO concluded they probably wouldn't be more survivable than ballistic missiles with maneuverable warheads unless those faced highly effective long-range defenses. Heat is the main engineering challenge: GAO says surfaces can exceed 2,000 °F, and CBO cites sustained temperatures as high as 3,000 °F. Russia reportedly fielded its first hypersonic weapons in December 2019, and China likely by 2020. The DOD's FY2026 request for hypersonic weapons was $3.9 billion, down from $6.9 billion in FY2025.
DID YOUKNOW?DugaDD-592
Duga
Duga, Russian for 'arc', was a Soviet over-the-horizon radar system that formed part of the USSR's early-warning network against ballistic missiles. Over-the-horizon radar bounces shortwave signals off the ionosphere to see far beyond the line of sight. After an experimental Duga near Mykolaiv proved the idea, two operational systems were built: Duga-1 in what is now northern Ukraine, then the Ukrainian SSR, and Duga-2 in eastern Siberia near Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Duga-1 split its transmitter and receiver about 60 kilometers apart. The giant receiving array stands in the closed town of Chernobyl-2, a few kilometers from the Chernobyl nuclear plant, and the transmitters were near Liubech. From July 1976 to December 1989, its pulses, at up to about 10 megawatts, swept across the shortwave bands as a sharp tapping, usually 10 times a second. Listeners worldwide called it the 'Russian Woodpecker', and it disrupted broadcasts, amateur radio and aviation communications, drawing thousands of complaints. NATO reportedly gave it the reporting name STEEL WORK or STEEL YARD. The Chernobyl antenna is about 700 meters long and 150 meters high. The signals faded in the late 1980s and stopped in 1989; the reasons were never made public. The abandoned array, inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, is now a listed monument in Ukraine. The footage shows its rusting steel towers and antenna elements.
DID YOUKNOW?Flying BikeDD-584
Flying Bike
From the footage, I identify the machine as the de Lackner HZ-1 Aerocycle, a one-man 'personal helicopter' built for the US Army in the mid-1950s. It grew out of work by Charles H. Zimmerman of NACA on kinesthetic control: with the rotors below the pilot, the craft could be steered by shifting body weight, much like riding a bicycle or a surfboard. The Aerocycle had a cross-shaped frame with the pilot standing on a platform in a safety harness, above two contra-rotating 15-foot rotors driven by a 40-horsepower Mercury outboard motor. A motorcycle-style twist-grip throttle sat on the handlebars, and airbags on each arm plus a central rubber float served as landing gear. It made its first tethered flight on November 22, 1954, and its first free flight in January 1955 at the Brooklyn Army Terminal in New York. Early tests suggested untrained soldiers could learn to fly it in about 20 minutes, and the Army ordered 12. After testing moved to Fort Eustis, Virginia, in 1956, test pilot Capt. Selmer Sundby found it much harder to fly than expected. Two crashes, in which the rotors intermeshed and shattered, and the wider failure of the 'personal lifting device' concept ended the program. One HZ-1 survives at the US Army Transportation Museum at Fort Eustis.
DID YOUKNOW?Bunker ValentinDD-571
Bunker Valentin
Bunker Valentin is a bomb-proof U-boat factory that the German navy (Kriegsmarine) built on the Weser River at Bremen-Farge, in Bremen's Rekum district. With Allied bombers pounding open shipyards, the plan was to assemble Type XXI submarines there from prefabricated sections, on an assembly line. Construction ran from 1943 to March 1945. The memorial says it was the second-largest above-ground bunker in Europe. Wikipedia gives its size as about 426 m long and up to 97 m wide, with a height of 22.5 to 27 m. Its walls are about 4.5 m thick, and its roof is 4.5 m thick, rising to 7 m in one section. According to the memorial, up to 10,000 forced laborers built it: civilians from across Europe, Soviet prisoners of war, Italian military internees, concentration-camp prisoners from the nearby Neuengamme subcamp at Farge, and Gestapo labor-camp inmates. They worked 12-hour shifts day and night. The memorial puts the death toll at about 1,600, from hunger, disease and arbitrary killings, and 1,144 victims are known by name. On March 27, 1945, RAF 617 Squadron bombed the bunker with Grand Slam and Tallboy bombs. Two Grand Slams broke through the thinner western roof. Building stopped soon afterwards, and no submarine was ever finished there. After the war it was used for bomb tests. From the 1960s to 2010, the German navy (Bundesmarine) used it as a depot. A memorial sculpture, 'Vernichtung durch Arbeit' ('Extermination through Labour'), was erected in 1983. The bunker opened as the Denkort Bunker Valentin memorial on November 8, 2015. The footage shows the overgrown exterior walls and the dim interior bays behind fencing.
DID YOUKNOW?OTO 76/62DD-558
OTO 76/62
The OTO Melara 76 mm/62 is a compact, rapid-fire naval gun designed in Italy by OTO Melara (now part of Leonardo) and in service since 1964. Its automatic loading system and revolving magazine let it fire up to about 120 rounds a minute in the Super Rapid version, and it has been adopted by many navies for anti-air, anti-ship and shore-bombardment roles. The footage, credited to vexrmedia, shows the gun's loading mechanism and a mount firing at sea.
DID YOUKNOW?Nuclear FireballDD-052
Nuclear Fireball
A nuclear detonation heats the weapon's residues to several tens of millions of degrees. Within a millionth of a second they give off X-rays that the surrounding air absorbs within a few feet, forming the incandescent fireball. The fireball's rapid early expansion compresses the air into a blast wave. For a low-altitude fission burst, roughly 50% of the energy goes into blast, 35% into thermal radiation and 15% into nuclear radiation.
DID YOUKNOW?Angel of DeathDD-436
Angel of Death
The Lockheed AC-130 is a heavily armed ground-attack variant of the C-130 Hercules transport, first used by the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War in the late 1960s. Like many military aircraft, it carries flares, pyrotechnic decoys that burn hot to draw infrared-guided missiles away. Released in symmetric patterns, the flare trails can resemble wings, a display sometimes called angel flares. The footage shows an AC-130 releasing flares.
DID YOUKNOW?Fall MaryaDD-412
Fall Marya
RDS-3, the Soviet Union's third nuclear test, took place on October 18, 1951, at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in present-day Kazakhstan. It was the first Soviet atomic bomb dropped from an aircraft, a Tupolev Tu-4 bomber, and it detonated about 400 meters above the ground with a yield of about 42 kilotons. The footage shows archival test film.
DID YOUKNOW?Tanking RailwaysDD-411
Tanking Railways
Armies often move tanks over long distances by rail, loading them onto heavy-duty flatcars and securing them with chains, straps and wheel or track chocks. Rail moves many vehicles at once, saves wear on the tanks and roads and costs less than moving each one separately; it is used for deployments, exercises and transfers between bases. The footage shows tanks on rail flatcars.
DID YOUKNOW?Mach MadnessDD-346
Mach Madness
When a jet flies fast through humid air, air pressure and temperature drop over the wings and around the airframe, and water vapor condenses into a visible cloud, often called a vapor cone. It is common near the speed of sound but can form at subsonic speeds, and it is not itself the shock wave or proof of breaking the sound barrier. Engine contrails are a different effect. The footage shows fighter jets with vapor around the wings, often low over the sea.
DID YOUKNOW?Nuclear ShadowsDD-330
Nuclear Shadows
When the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, the intense flash of thermal radiation bleached and scorched exposed surfaces. Where a person or object blocked the flash, the surface behind stayed darker, leaving a shadow-like outline. Some of these shadows, on steps, walls and pavements, are preserved; the best known is on the steps of a Hiroshima bank. The footage shows such shadows and a re-enactment of how they form.
DID YOUKNOW?Toxic PhosphorusDD-314
Toxic Phosphorus
White phosphorus is a waxy, toxic form of the element that can ignite spontaneously in air at around 30 °C (86 °F). It burns with a bright flame and gives off dense white smoke of phosphorus pentoxide, so it is stored under water. It is used to make phosphoric acid and other chemicals, and militaries have used it in smoke and incendiary munitions, a use regulated by international law. Contact causes severe burns. The footage shows the chemist from Nile Red handling and burning it.
DID YOUKNOW?2-Billion Dollar B=2DD-295
2-Billion Dollar B=2
The Northrop B-2 Spirit is a US Air Force stealth bomber with a flying-wing shape designed to reduce its radar cross-section. It first flew publicly in 1989. By 1996, the program had produced 21 B-2s at a total cost of $44.7 billion, an average of $2.13 billion per aircraft when research and development are included. The cost of building each additional aircraft, without development, has been estimated at about $737 million in 1997 dollars. Plans for 132 aircraft were cut back as the Cold War ended, which raised the per-plane share of development costs. The B-2 is being succeeded by the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider. The footage shows a B-2 in flight and close-ups of its wing.
DID YOUKNOW?KilotonDD-270
Kiloton
After World War II, the United States conducted nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Operation Crossroads in 1946 included the Baker test on July 25, 1946, in which a 23-kiloton atomic bomb was detonated underwater to study effects on naval vessels. It threw up a huge column of water and caused severe radioactive contamination. Bikini's residents had been relocated before the tests and have not resettled the atoll permanently. The footage shows the Baker test.
DID YOUKNOW?Le Petit CaporalDD-224
Le Petit Caporal
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 to 1821) rose through the French Revolutionary army, seized power in 1799 and crowned himself Emperor of the French in December 1804. His wars reshaped Europe until his defeats in 1814 and at Waterloo in 1815, after which he was exiled to Saint Helena. The Napoleonic Code of 1804 influenced civil law in many countries. 'Le Petit Caporal', the little corporal, was an affectionate nickname from his soldiers; he was about 1.69 m tall, roughly average for a Frenchman of his time. The footage shows illustrations of Napoleon, with the presenter.
DID YOUKNOW?Russia & The UkraineDD-205
Russia & The Ukraine
The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014, when Russia occupied and then annexed Crimea from The Ukraine, and Russian-backed separatists took up arms in the Donbas region of eastern The Ukraine. On February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced what he called a 'special military operation', and Russia launched a full-scale invasion of The Ukraine, the largest attack on a European country since the Second World War. By June 2022, the Ukrainian government said Russia held about 20% of The Ukraine's territory. The war has killed or wounded large numbers of soldiers and civilians, and millions of people from The Ukraine have been displaced inside the country or have fled abroad. The footage shows news coverage from 2014 to 2022, with the presenter.
DID YOUKNOW?SAMsDD-152
SAMs
A surface-to-air missile (SAM) is launched from the ground or a ship to destroy aircraft, helicopters, drones or other missiles. Guidance varies: some SAMs ride a radar beam or home on radar energy reflected from the target, some home on infrared (heat), and some combine methods. Systems range from shoulder-fired missiles such as the Stinger to long-range systems such as the Patriot and S-400. SAMs were first used in combat in the Second World War era and became widespread during the Cold War. The footage shows SAM launchers and launches, with the presenter.
DID YOUKNOW?RailgunsDD-151
Railguns
A railgun is an electromagnetic launcher. A very large electric current runs up one rail, through a conductive projectile or armature, and back down the other rail; the magnetic field this creates pushes the projectile along the rails at very high speed. Conventional guns use chemical propellant instead. The US Navy researched railguns for years and tested prototypes, but paused its program in 2021. Japan's defense agency reported test-firing a railgun from a ship in 2023. Problems include rail wear and the huge power the guns need. The footage shows railgun tests and launches, with the presenter.
DID YOUKNOW?HeloDD-150
Helo
Military helicopters fill many roles, including troop transport, reconnaissance, search and rescue, medical evacuation and close air support, because they can hover and land almost anywhere. The Boeing AH-64 Apache is a US attack helicopter that first flew in 1975 and entered service with the US Army in 1986; it is also flown by many other countries. A pinnacle landing is a standard helicopter technique for landing on a peak, ridge or other elevated spot where wind and limited space make the approach harder. It's taught to helicopter pilots generally, not only Apache crews. The footage shows Apaches and other military helicopters, with the presenter.
DID YOUKNOW?SubsDD-149
Subs
A submarine controls its buoyancy with ballast tanks. Flooding the main ballast tanks with seawater makes the boat heavier than the water it displaces, so it submerges; blowing the water out with compressed air makes it lighter, so it surfaces. Smaller trim tanks and the boat's diving planes fine-tune its depth and balance underwater. Submarines are used by navies for patrol, reconnaissance and deterrence, and research submersibles explore the deep sea. The first submarine to sink an enemy warship was the Confederate H. L. Hunley, in 1864. The footage shows submarines surfacing and underway, with the presenter.
DID YOUKNOW?TyphoonDD-148
Typhoon
The Eurofighter Typhoon is a twin-engine multirole fighter built by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo. It first flew in 1994 and entered service in 2003. It uses a canard-delta layout, with small foreplanes (canards) ahead of a delta wing. The design is aerodynamically unstable, and a digital fly-by-wire system keeps it under control, which gives the aircraft high agility. It's flown by Germany, the UK, Italy, Spain and Austria, and also by Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait and Qatar. The footage shows Typhoons in flight and on the ground, with the presenter.
DID YOUKNOW?DestroyerDD-147
Destroyer
The Arleigh Burke class is a class of guided-missile destroyers in the US Navy. The lead ship, USS Arleigh Burke (DDG-51), was commissioned in 1991, and more than 70 have been commissioned since, making it one of the longest-running destroyer production programs. The ships are built around the Aegis Combat System and its SPY-1 phased-array radar, and they're designed for air defense, anti-submarine warfare and land attack. The class is named after Admiral Arleigh Burke, a destroyer commander in the Second World War who later served as Chief of Naval Operations. The footage shows Arleigh Burke-class destroyers at sea, with the presenter.
DID YOUKNOW?King TigerDD-146
King Tiger
The Tiger II, nicknamed 'King Tiger' by Allied soldiers, was a German heavy tank of the Second World War, used in combat from 1944 to 1945. It weighed about 68 to 70 tonnes and carried the 8.8 cm KwK 43 L/71 gun. Its sloped frontal armor, up to 180 mm thick on the turret, was hard for most Allied tank guns of the time to penetrate from the front. About 490 were built. Its weight strained the engine and drivetrain, which were prone to breakdowns, and it was difficult to transport and to cross many bridges. The footage shows archive and museum images of the Tiger II, with the presenter.
DID YOUKNOW?BlackbirdDD-117
Blackbird
The Lockheed SR-71 'Blackbird' is a retired long-range, high-altitude, Mach 3+ strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed in the 1960s by Lockheed's Skunk Works from the earlier A-12. It first flew in 1964 and was operated by the US Air Force. Its standard tactic against surface-to-air missiles was to accelerate and outrun them, and no SR-71 was lost to enemy fire. It set the absolute speed record for an air-breathing crewed aircraft, 3,529.6 km/h (2,193.2 mph), in 1976, which still stands. The Air Force retired it in 1998 and NASA flew its last in 1999. The footage shows SR-71s in flight and on the ground, with the presenter.
DID YOUKNOW?The Atomic GunDD-083
The Atomic Gun
The Davy Crockett was a U.S. tactical nuclear weapon system of the Cold War: a recoilless rifle that fired the M388 nuclear projectile. Its W54 warhead had a yield of roughly 10 to 20 tons of TNT, tiny for a nuclear weapon. It was deployed with U.S. Army units, including in West Germany, from 1961 until it was withdrawn by 1971.