We often hear about how size isn't important, but when it comes to weaponry, this statement
is a bit out of place. There's nothing more important for military equipment than size
and power! In this video, we have put together a list
of the largest military vehicles ever created by mankind just for you.
When it comes to tanks, an image of a small, maneuverable machine on caterpillar tracks,
designed to engage enemy positions directly, comes to mind. In the last century, though,
people have been having a different vision, and the super-heavy Char 2C giant is a direct
testament to that. This "heavyweight", capable of carrying up
to 13 crew members, was designed by French engineers during World War I, but the first
prototypes only appeared by the end of the war. As a result, 10 Char 2Cs, weighing from
72 to 76 tons, rolled off the assembly line. The tank's mobility was impressive even by
modern standards. With its 33.69-foot hull length, it could drive over ditches as wide
as 13.1 feet, climb a 3.96-foot wall, and wade through a river 5.25 feet deep. Its insane
mass made it easy to trample not only trees, but tricky engineering obstacles as well.
What's funny is that despite all the effort it took to build the tank, it never actually
took part in combat, but it was in service with France from 1921 to 1940. These giant
tanks lacked maneuverability, so in 1940, after France's defeat, the Char 2C was destroyed
by its own crew to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.
The special MZKT-79221 wheel chassis looked more like a millipede with wheels. And it's
no wonder, seeing as there were as many as sixteen of them, and all as tall as a man!
The MZKT-79221 was designed back in 1996, and its mass production began in 2000.
To improve the maneuverability of this machine, the engineers made the wheels of the first
and last three axles lockable. That is, a turn could be made with three front or three
rear axles. The length of the chassis is more than 74.47
feet, and the payload is 80 tons. The MZKT-79221 is capable of easily carrying Topol-M ballistic
missiles. The starting mass of one such missile is 51.25 tons. To facilitate missile launching,
the chassis is capable of acting as a crane, placing it in an upright position. It's probably
quite hard to think of something more versatile for transporting and launching missiles!
The amphibious all-wheel-drive Larc LX is renowned as the world's largest 4x4 vehicle.
Its dimensions are comparable to a two-story house, and its lifting capacity ranges from
60 to 100 tons. The vehicle could also be used to deliver
40-foot containers loaded directly from a helicopter or with a winch with a pulling
force of 12.7 tons. Weighing as much as 100 tons, this amphibious
vehicle itself was made of the strongest steel. Its land speed was 20 miles per hour and 7.5
miles per hour afloat. Four GMC engines, each rated at 265 hp, propelled the vehicle.
The first Larc LX completed its maiden voyage in 1952, and in 1967 it was used extensively
in the Vietnam War. The machine was extremely reliable, as this resilient giant could continue
to operate even if half of the engines failed!
The Captive Air Amphibious Transporter is a 1:5 prototype of a tracked amphibious vehicle
developed as part of DARPA's TEMP program to create innovative systems that turn container
ships into autonomous floating supply bases. The CAAT weighs about 38 tons but, like an
ant, is capable of carrying 100,000 tons of cargo and delivering 20 or 40-foot containers
at 4-5 nautical knots. Air-filled pontoons allow this huge machine
to move on water, which engineers thought of attaching to the tracks. They help the
CAAT haul containers on cluttered surfaces, waterways, and allow it to tow a raft with
additional cargo. In addition, the amphibious vehicle can easily overcome mud, sand, and
can't be stopped by any swamp! This vehicle becomes especially relevant after
tsunamis and earthquakes, when there is a need to transport cargo or people from a natural
disaster site.
Aircraft carriers have quickly become expensive toys in the arsenals of the world's strongest
nations, but the U.S. still holds its unbeatable record for number of aircraft carriers!
The Gerald R. Ford – a literal city on water! The size of this giant is intimidating: it's
over 1106 feet long, and its flight deck is over 252 feet wide!
Named after the 38th president of the United States, this aircraft carrier is capable of
carrying up to 90 planes and helicopters. It took about $17.5 billion and more than
200,000 gallons of paint to build. This ship's "cherry on top" was the electromagnetic
catapults that replaced the steam ones, allowing engineers to accelerate combat aircraft several
times smoother, avoiding excessive strain on the structure and the pilots.
This giant is the amalgamation of all the latest U.S Navy developments and is the largest
and most expensive modern warship to prowl the seas.
Perhaps no submarine in the world is as gigantic as one of the Soviet Project 941 Sharks, of
the "Typhoon" series. The first models were created by Soviet engineers in 1972. But the
lead, and fastest, ship in the series was the heavy nuclear-powered submarine, the Dmitry
Donskoy. This giant is about 567 feet long, 76.4 feet
wide and 85.3 feet high. Due to its design features, it can not only successfully withstand
up to 4 months of offshore operation, but it performs very well when surrounded by ice,
breaking through ice up to 8.2 feet thick. By the way, legend says that Brezhnev personally
changed the name of the Shark project to Typhoon in order to cause confusion during the full
swing of the Cold War.
No one builds airships today, but at one time, these soaring, hydrogen-filled behemoths terrorized
the hearts of those unlucky enough to get in their way!
The most striking display of the airship era was the LZ 129 Hindenburg, a rigid airship
built in 1936 in Nazi Germany and named after Reich president Paul von Hindenburg.
At the time of its construction, it was the most gigantic aircraft ever built. It was
809.3 feet long and 135.17 feet in diameter. The airship was capable of lifting up to 100
tons and 133 people. Unfortunately, this airship is not just associated
with a record, but also with a tragedy. The "Hindenburg" incident in 1937 was a high-profile
air crash. While attempting to drop the anchor ropes in the tail section, there was a sudden
fire which caused the airship to burn to the ground in just 34 seconds. There were 61 crew
members and 36 passengers aboard, of whom 13 people, 22 crew members, and one worker
who was on the ground at the time, died. This catastrophe heralded the end of the airship
era and the phasing-out of hydrogen.
Huge cargo planes have always attracted people's attention, even just parked on airfields.
Sometimes it's hard to believe that these huge machines are able to get off the ground!
The An-124 Ruslan became the largest production cargo aircraft in the world, and before the
appearance of its "successor", the An-225 Mriya, was also the largest aircraft in the
world, taking this title from the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy.
This legendary aircraft was able to set 21 world records, although experts initially
doubted its compliance with its claimed specifications. The aircraft can be used in military operations
to deliver heavy combat equipment and weapons, as well as transport troops between theaters
of operations. The AN-124 is capable of lifting up to 188.73
tons to an altitude of 3,570 feet. It could fit a standard NBA basketball court as the
cargo cabin is almost 120 feet long. Occasionally, however, there are even… stranger
uses for it. For example, the Russian military played hockey on one of the Ruslans during
a flight!
The Messerschmitt Me 323 Gigant is another "heavyweight" in the world of military transport
aircraft, with a payload of up to 12 tons. It was recognized as the heaviest land plane
of World War II. A total of about 200 such aircraft were built,
which were used to supply German troops in North Africa and Tunisia between 1943 and
1944. The aircraft reached a top speed of 155.34 miles per hour and could hold up to
130 soldiers at a time. One feature visible to the naked eye was not
even the size of the aircraft, but the multi-wheeled landing gear. Along each side of the fuselage
there were five wheels of different diameters, which were not retracted into the body even
during the flight. The Germans managed to implement not just
a cutting-edge chassis for that time, but also a wide fuselage, large front cargo hatch,
and a transformable cargo compartment. Some of these solutions are still used in military
cargo aviation today!
The Peacemaker B-36 was a giant strategic bomber built by Convair. It served the U.S.
Air Force from 1949 to 1959 and was the largest piston-powered aircraft ever built.
The Peacemaker had a wingspan of 230 feet and a range of more than 10,000 miles, allowing
for intercontinental flight without the need to refuel.
The B-36 was the primary delivery vehicle for SAC nuclear weapons before it was replaced
by the Boeing B-52, after which all but four of the aircraft were scrapped.
The military engineers achieved a phenomenal cruising altitude for a piston-powered aircraft.
This was made possible by its huge wing area and six 28-cylinder engines, putting the plane
beyond the reach of most interceptors and ground-based anti-aircraft systems.
The bomber could carry up to 87,200 pounds of ordnance, but it was not designed for nuclear
weapons, because at the time even the very existence of nuclear weapons was top-secret.
It did, however, begin making nuclear weapons deliveries as soon as it became operational.
One of the most dangerous experiments was the modification of the NB-36H, when a specially
converted aircraft in the nuclear aircraft program flew with a functioning nuclear reactor
right on board in order to find out how radiation affected the aircraft's crew and systems!
The Peacemaker tried to live up to its name, so it never participated in combat operations,
but was used as a reconnaissance aircraft in one of its modifications.
If you saw an experimental Soviet Ekranoplan today, you would probably think that someone
mixed up the turbines with the wings. Whatever the case, the Lun rocket-carrying ekranoplan
was indeed created as an experimental prototype. This gigantic machine was designed in 1964-65.
Because of its name, which meant "Ship-prototype", the aircraft received the formidable nickname
"the Caspian Sea Monster", which was given to it by the American secret services, mistakenly
deciphering the abbreviation. But, you have to admit, that sounds more formidable than
the original! The ekranoplan was the heaviest aircraft in
the world with a maximum takeoff weight of 544 tons before the appearance of the AN-225.
It was a promising solution not only for the military, but also for rescuers in those years,
but designing it was a very complicated process. According to the documents, the "Monster"
was recorded as a ship, but its design was more like a strange amphibious craft.
Its first tests took place at night due to the secrecy of the project, and during the
day the ekranoplan was covered with a camouflage net. As a result, these tests were performed
for 15 years until 1980. In 1980, because of a piloting error, the "Monster" had an
accident. Although there were no casualties, the plane was afloat for some time and soon
sank. No one dared to restore the plane or create a new one, so the monster literally
"sunk into the abyss".
Another aviation giant, but no longer an airplane, is the Mil V-12, classified by NATO under
the name Homer. The largest helicopter ever created by mankind!
Its main design feature was the side-mounted propellers on the reverse taper wings, and
it was designed as a super-heavy transport helicopter, capable of lifting more than 40
tons. It was planned to be used to deliver components for intercontinental ballistic
missiles and create deployment areas for artillery, missile, and mortar units.
In 1969, this helicopter set a record for payload capacity, lifting 44.2 tons to an
altitude of 7,400 feet. But in spite of all the achievements and records, engineers discovered
new ways to create more effective lightweight strategic missiles, which made the military
no longer need the Mil V-12 with its amazing payload capacity.
One of the V-12s located at the Moscow Helicopter Plant was turned into a museum. So today everyone
can walk around this prematurely retired helicopter.
What did you think of these military giants?
What impressed you the most? Be sure to tell us in the comments!
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