Modern technology has had a huge impact on the art of warfare, and yet something has remained unchanged - each of the opponents strives to be stronger and more cunning. Therefore, military secrets are revealed only to a few. So the US government (like any other country) keeps the most advanced military developments secret. Yet sometimes information leaks out to the media.
1. Directed energy weapons
The Greek mathematician Archimedes made history over 2000 years ago as the first person ever to use directed energy weapons. According to legend, during the Roman invasion of Syracuse, Archimedes built the hexagonal mirror when the Roman admiral Marcellus, during the siege of Syracuse, pulled his ships out of range of arrows. Archimedes was apparently able to focus the rays of the sun and reflect them on the ships that caught fire.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology students were able to recreate this effect in 2005, but noted that their mirror was only capable of effectively burning a stationary target. Although scientific knowledge has advanced significantly since the time of Archimedes, the basic theoretical principles of Directed Energy Weapon (DEW) technology remain unchanged. DEW deals damage from a distance, firing an intensely concentrated beam of energy at the target.
Different types of DEWs use different types of energy, but the most popular form of targeted energy weapons in use today is the High Energy Laser (HEL). These DEWs are like lasers seen in sci-fi movies. They fire a silent beam of energy, invisible at certain frequencies, that can burn a target from hundreds of kilometers away.
The HEL was developed by contractors such as Lockheed Martin for use in missile defense and space warfare, but some believe the weapon could have been designed for much more sinister purposes.
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2. Long-range acoustic devices
A new type of crowd control weapon came to the fore during the 2014 Ferguson, Missouri protests. Then, for the first time, LRAD sonic guns were used to suppress civil unrest. Capable of projecting sound over a distance of 9 kilometers, the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) inflicts severe pain on anyone within 100 meters. LRAD manufacturers tend to refer to their products as "devices" rather than "weapons." But anyone who has survived the effects of LRAD exposure knows the difference between the truth and the developer's claims.
Also, interestingly, American diplomats stationed in Cuba have recently begun to lose their hearing. Soon after the conflict between the United States and Cuba in 2015, diplomats visiting the newly reopened US embassy in the Caribbean island nation began reporting sudden and permanent hearing loss. US investigators concluded that the diplomats were struck by an unknown advanced acoustic device that does not produce sound but does irreparable damage to the ears and brain.
The incident was considered so serious that the United States expelled two Cuban diplomats from its embassy in Washington. However, the exact characteristics of this LRAD-like device and the identity of those who used it against the Americans are still unknown.
3. Low frequency microwave mind control
The sonic attacks on the US Embassy in Cuba have rekindled long-standing fears of yet another secret weapon. In 1965, at the height of the Cold War, the Pentagon discovered that the USSR was irradiating the US Embassy in Moscow with extremely low frequency (ELF) microwave radiation. While the radiation was too weak to "fry the brain", it was found that the so-called "Soviet signal" had the ability to influence the health or change the behavior of the embassy staff. Rather than expressing a note of protest, the Pentagon decided to examine the potential effects of the signal and try to mimic them at home.
DARPA, the then newly formed Advanced Research Projects Division of the US Department of Defense, launched a project called Project Pandora, beginning research into the effects of ELF microwave radiation on the primate brain. Although the results were inconclusive, project leader Richard Cesaro remained convinced until the closure of Project Pandora in 1969 that ELF radiation posed a serious threat to the national security of the United States. In any case, the Pentagon resolved the situation by “putting on a foil hat,” or to be more precise, by installing aluminum screens around the embassy's perimeter.
Although DARPA closed the ELF radiation project in 1969, research has shown that low-frequency microwave and radio waves can indeed be harmful to the human body. It has even been shown that the signals emitted and received by cell phones affect brain function, often resulting in disruption of natural sleep cycles.
4. Heart attack pistols
After the Watergate scandal in the early 1970s, Democratic Senator Frank Church chaired a committee dedicated to investigating any CIA action. It was believed that the CIA was accumulating unfounded unilateral power under the pretext of the Cold War, and Church allegedly wanted to expose this heinous conspiracy against the American people. Although history subsequently showed that attempts to curb the CIA's totalitarian zeal were ultimately ineffective, this 1975 study found several interesting results.
One such discovery was the so-called "Heart Attack Gun" - a modified pistol capable of delivering an almost imperceptible, but lethal dose of shellfish toxin into the victim's body. A dart fired by this silent weapon would theoretically leave a thrust, no more than a mosquito bite, and would almost instantly dissolve into body tissues after injecting the poison, which caused a heart attack in the victim for several moments.
It is not known if the "heart attack pistol" was ever used. But as far as we know, it can still be actively used today.
5. Magnetohydrodynamic explosive ammunition
In Earth Light, Arthur Clarke described a futuristic weapon that used electromagnetism to "spit" a stream of molten metal into space, destroying the space battleship. This type of armor-piercing weapon is not entirely unheard of. Since World War II, various weapons manufacturers have created SFP ammunition that used a chemical explosion and a metal core.
The SFP changed its shape when hitting an armored vehicle in order to more easily penetrate the target's armor. However, conventional SFPs are ineffective and difficult to use, which has given rise to the need for more effective weapons to penetrate armor. DARPA has developed a specialized projectile called the Magneto Hydrodynamic Explosive Munition (MAHEM).
By using electromagnetism to form and direct a steady stream of molten metal, MAHEM is much more adaptable than a conventional SFP, and very similar to the fictional weapon described in Earthlight.
Apart from these basic details, little is known about this classified military project.
6. Biological weapons
Between 1949 and 1969, the United States military tested biological weapons on their own people without their knowledge or consent. One such experiment took place in 1950, when a U. S. Navy ship sprayed billions of tiny microbes in the atmosphere over San Francisco, causing a massive spike in disease and the potential killing of one citizen.
Another incident occurred on the New York subway in 1966, when researchers dropped flasks of bacteria onto the rails to see how much these potentially deadly pathogens would be carried by train traffic. Other experiments consisted of enveloping entire cities in clouds of cadmium zinc sulphide under the pretext of providing a smokescreen to hide the population in the event of a nuclear war.
The military argues that this was all done with the aim of developing better defenses against foreign adversaries, but many wonder if the benefits of such reckless experimentation really outweigh the costs. However, the dangerous pathogens released into the atmosphere may be the least of the biological threats to which the American government has exposed its people.
In 2016, DNI Director James Clapper expressed concern that gene editing technology could become a weapon of mass destruction if it falls into the wrong hands. The science of gene editing has spread throughout the modern world, seemingly without regard to the potentially harmful consequences of the erosion of the genetic structure of the biosphere. Genetic engineering has given rise to the potential existence of secretly developed biological weapons that could destroy entire nations in virtually overnight.
7. Subliminal messages
It is well known that subliminal messaging is widely used in advertising. This type of marketing usually uses a person's basic motivations to subtly influence them to buy a particular product or service. But what if the same principles used in subliminal advertising are also being used by the United States Intelligence Agency for espionage purposes or even mind control.
A previously classified CIA document titled "Operational Potential of Subconscious Perception" describes in detail the prescribed methodology of the principles of subconscious perception to convince someone to do something that they would not normally do.
8. Flying aircraft carriers
In the late 1920s, the US Navy began researching the tactical capabilities of aircraft carriers. Two zeppelin airships were built, the USS Akron and the USS Macon, both of which had a crew of 60 and were capable of firing and accepting Sparrowhawk fighters in flight. However, both vehicles crashed, and their remains now rest on the ocean floor.
Recently, however, there have been rumors of DARPA plans to relaunch this chapter of American history and initiate yet another attempt to develop aircraft carriers for military use. This time, these aerial leviathans will carry unmanned aerial vehicles instead of manned combat aircraft. Called the Gremlin Program, this daring DARPA initiative will feature modified C-130 transports loaded with stealth-technology drones that can infiltrate enemy territory unnoticed.
Given DARPA's reputation for announcing plans for completed projects, it is possible that Gremlins are already flying on the heads of unsuspecting people.
9. Project "Thor"
Potentially surpassing MOAB as the deadliest non-nuclear weapon in the United States arsenal, Project Thor is a technology developed in the 1950s by Jerry Purnel that can destroy enemies with rods falling on their heads. This Kinetic Energy Penetrator (KEP) weapon would theoretically consist of a pair of satellites. One of them serves as a targeting center, while the other would be equipped with 6-meter tungsten rods that would be dropped onto the target from orbit.
Capable of penetrating 30 meters into the soil, these deadly "Thor's thunderbolts" would cause damage equivalent to a nuclear explosion, but without the radioactive fallout. While the cost of bringing such rods into orbit is viewed as prohibitively high, the resumption of the Project Thor initiative has been seriously considered relatively recently by the George W. Bush administration.
With the $ 21 trillion allegedly embezzled by the Department of Defense and several other agencies, it's hard to see what potentially costly theoretical projects the United States government could painlessly implement without the knowledge or consent of the people.
10. HAARP
Hugo Chavez drew international attention to the HAARP facility in Alaska when he accused the United States Air Force of using this high-frequency transmitter to initiate the 2010 Haiti earthquake. All conspiracy theories died down when it was announced that this complex of ionospheric research would shut down in 2014. But speculation resumed when HAARP was reopened in 2017 by the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF).
As a first experiment, the UAF decided to conduct an artificially induced weather event, namely the creation of the northern lights over Alaska, which was invisible to the naked eye.