These weapons are so bad, it’s a wonder they’re still in use even by the world’s mightiest powers!
Littoral Combat Ship – United States
Get used to seeing the United States on this list,
because for the world's most powerful military, it sure has wasted billions on boondoggles.
The Littoral Combat Ship was supposed to redefine naval strategy for the American navy.
Starting in the early 2000s, China began to build up the capability to deny the US Navy access
to the South China sea and Western Pacific. Known as Anti-Access/Area Denial, or A2/AD,
China's strategy to overcome the superior American navy was to simply make it too dangerous for it to
operate anywhere near China's Pacific interests. With a combination of forward-deployed air power
on artificial islands and long-range ballistic missile batteries, China has effectively created
overlapping zones of danger for any US warship daring to oppose Chinese interests.
The math is firmly on China's side- a modern warship costs billions,
while an anti-ship missile costs only millions. Even if it takes ten missiles to kill a warship,
China still comes out on top financially by a long run- not to mention the loss of
trained seamen on said warship. The solution was to create a smaller,
yet still incredibly lethal breed of warship with some stealth characteristics that could operate
in very shallow waters close to shore. Thus the Littoral Combat Ship was born,
and the US Navy began to dump billions into what might be the worst warship ever designed.
On paper the Littoral Combat Ship is capable of combat operations close to enemy shores,
using its superior speed and stealth to avoid enemy fire. Its modular structure allows it to
rapidly change mission profiles- one day it could be inserting special forces onto
an enemy beach and supporting them with drones launched from its deck, a few days later after
swapping out modules it could be conducting electronic signals intelligence. Its complement
of missiles and guns would allow it to face off against targets much larger than itself,
while its superior speed would zip it away from any seriously threatening contact.And
it would be cheap, costing only a fraction of a large destroyer or frigate.
Instead of any of this, the US Navy spent tens of billions on a ship that can’t fight.
For starters, the Navy shot itself in the foot right out of the gate by hiring two different
contracters to build its LCS design. Lockheed Martin would build part of the LCS fleet,
while the other part would be built by Austal. This meant that there was no standardization
of parts between the two ships, a logistical nightmare, and even construction materials
varied. Austal built its ships with aluminum, which has a low melting point that would prove
catastrophic to a warship when the USS Bonhomme Richard caught fire and its aluminum roof melted.
Both ships though were vulnerable to enemy fire, with critical ship systems being placed
closer together- meaning one well-placed or lucky missile strike would effectively
cripple the entire vessel. The ships from both companies also had a baffling lack of redundancy,
a standard ship building practice since the dawn of modern warship construction.
Next, the modular design that had been so attractive to the Navy and
promised a flexible boat capable of fulfilling multiple roles, turned out to be a failure.
Modules were too difficult to swap, and frequently created maintenance issues.
Despite this, the Navy dumped another 7.6 billion into trying to achieve the dreamt-of
modular design only to meet with failure and abandon those plans altogether.
Shoddy construction only added to the woes of the LCS, as ships of the class experienced frequent
breakdowns and the lowest ready rates of any ship in the navy- possibly any navy. In 2015 and 2016
four out of 6 LCS suffered major breakdowns. The cause? Poor manufacture of engine parts leading
to debris and shavings damaging engine parts. One ship had sea water flood its engine. In 2017 an
LCS suffered a broken steering cable which left it marooned in Montreal, Canada. After repairs, the
ship was unable to navigate winter conditions and became stuck. In 2020 an LCS lost all electrical
power on its way back to the US from Latin America and became stranded in the open ocean.
The problems with the LCS class have been so pronounced that the ship earned the moniker,
'Little Crappy Ship', and the Navy finally decided to retire the entire
fleet in the coming years- despite some of the ships being only 6 years
old. That's a far cry from the average 30-40 year lifespan of any other warship.
Our next worst weapon still in use was so bad that when news of its
underperformance in combat leaked to the public it caused an outrage.
L85A1 Assault Rifle – Great Britain
Development on the L85A1 began in the 60s, with a goal of producing a revolutionary infantry weapon
by the 1980s. The result would be a weapon so bad the UK government tried to suppress
the fact from the voters, and ended up shelling out tens of millions of pounds to try and fix it.
The weapon was meant to be developed in two variants,
automatic infantry rifle and light squad support weapon. By 1984 the rifle was formally adopted
by the UK army, and despite worrying reports of serious issues with the weapon, the UK
ignored warning signs of serious design failures- until it was thrown into the crucible of war.
During Operation Desert Storm, the rifle showed just how terribly designed it truly was. First,
its design made it difficult to maintain in the field outside of a dedicated armory. Fixes
that could be quickly implemented 'in the field' required the expertise and tools of an armorer-
something an infantryman might have no access to during prolonged and intense combat operations.
Maintenance issues were compounded by a lack of quality control during its first production run.
After the rifle's production was moved to a new factory in Nottingham,
quality control improved but not dramatically so.
The harsh desert environment of Iraq also proved to be too much for the rifle,
with sand and grit causing frequent stoppages. However,
simple design and material choices ended up putting British lives at serious risk.
Firstly, the rifle was not ambidextrous, causing issues for left-handed shooters. The magazine
release button was also unprotected, leading to frequent accidental releases of magazines
in the middle of combat. The magazine well was made of very thin material,
which created the risk of bending and thus making the current magazine impossible to eject,
or stopping a new magazine from being fed. The magazines themselves were also an issue,
with shoddy construction leading to magazines that could break or split open. The polymer
body of the weapon was also very brittle, and when experiencing extreme cold could split open.
After the war the UK government would go on to spend tens of millions into
what would effectively be a redesign of the weapon. While upgraded variants have
proven to overcome the many flaws of the original design, plenty of originals remain
in circulation and threaten the success of British infantry on the battlefield.
Our next weapon is so bad, it needs a timeout anytime the weather gets hot.
Heckler & Koch G36- Germany
After reunification, the newly reborn nation of Germany desperately needed a
replacement infantry assault rifle. East and West German designs were wildly different,
and to bring the new German nation in line with its NATO allies, it adopted the Heckler & Koch
G36. The weapon was extremely accurate and chambered for NATO-standard 5.56 ammunition,
its revolutionary design delivered one of the most lethal and effective infantry rifles in the world.
Until it saw combat for the first time.
April 2nd, 2010. The German army has been deployed to Afghanistan in support of NATO
operations. Taliban forces launch a surprise attack at the German ISAF hq in Kunduz,
north Afghanistan. In the chaos of the battle, 32 German paratroopers become cut off and are in
threat of encirclement and annihilation. The men engage in a 9 hour fighting retreat, which becomes
deadly when their rifles begin to immediately fail. Three German soldiers will die that day.
The reason for their casualties? German soldiers were unable to hit their targets.
An investigation into the performance of the G36 was immediately launched,
with stunning revelations. Because of low quality polymer used in its construction,
the barrel would overheat in temperatures as low as 76 degrees (23 C). After just
sixty rounds the polymer supporting the barrel would begin to sag, causing serious degradation
of accuracy- as much as half a meter at 200 meters and a whopping 6 meters at 500 meters.
A German court would go on to rule that Heckler & Koch were not responsible for the catastrophic
failure of the design, and instead lay the blame on the German government itself. As the rifle had
been originally procured for peacetime missions, and not for heavy, sustained
combat operations, the design was ruled adequate for the role it was originally envisioned for.
Currently the rifle remains in service all over the world,
though the German military is replacing remaining G36s in 2022.
Next up, it's even more Heckler & Koch problems for the German army.
Heckler & Koch MG5- Germany Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me. And yet the German army immediately ran into problems with their
planned procurement of yet another Heckler & Koch weapon for the squad light machine gun role.
The MG5 looks impressive, its space-age design promises ease of maintenance and reliability.
Yet just two months before its formal adoption by the German military in 2015,
the order was canceled pending serious redesign. According to Tobias Lindner, Germany's Green party
federal defense expert, the weapon had serious enough flaws to be declared only “conditionally
fit” for combat use. Immediately after, rumors of accuracy issues began to surface.
Originally meant to enter service in 2015, the weapon is only now expected
to be formally adopted after seven years of redesigns and tests- a fact that leaves
the German infantryman with little faith in yet another Heckler & Koch product.
Our next worst weapon still in use is so slow that
its firing rate is not measured in rounds per minute, but rather minutes per round.
M1989 – North Korea
The M1989 is a weapon with one goal: strike Seoul from the demilitarized zone that
separates north and south Korea, a distance of about 15 miles (23 km). In that regard,
the weapon succeeds with flying colors- even if it can only fire once every few minutes.
The actual firing rate of the M1989 is unknown given the secretive nature of North Korea,
however the weapon's predecessor, the M1978, had a firing rate of two rounds every five minutes.
As no major redesigns are obvious, the 1989 is believed to have a similar rate of fire.
Given the incredible speeds of modern combat, this weapon is as obsolete as the bow and arrow.
Adapted from a Cold War era Soviet coastal defense battery,
the M1989 is North Korea's solution to its lack of long-range striking power. Knowing
it could not possibly achieve air superiority against South Korea and its American allies,
North Korea fields the M1989 in large numbers, threatening South Korea's capital with sheer
volume of fire. At least initially, as these massive, slow-firing weapons
would quickly become prey to attack helicopters, ground-attack planes, and counterartillery fire.
The platform is at least self-propelled, but requires lengthy set-up time, making
them incapable of shoot-and-scoot operations. It also features a major upgrade from its predecessor
in the capability of carrying 12 rounds internally. For any form of sustained operations,
the M1989 requires an additional support truck per platform to carry ammunition and fuel.
In an age of fast-moving combined arms warfare, the M1989 poses an initial risk to targets,
but is easily and quickly suppressed by counterbattery fire or ground attack aircraft.
Our next worst weapon is an aging dinosaur woefully out of
place amongst the world's most high-tech military.
AAV-7 – United States
The AAV-7 Assault Amphibious Vehicle has been ferrying US Marines from ship
to shore for fifty years- and is in need of immediate replacement.
The vehicle has enjoyed a distinguished service record, protecting US Marines
during peacekeeping operations in Lebanon in 1982 through 1984, conducting a successful amphibious
landing in Grenada in 1983, and pushing back Saddam's forces in the 1991 Gulf War. However,
the AAV-7 proved to be unable to keep up with modern threats when it was criticized
for providing inadequate protection to troops during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Vulnerable to mortar, RPG, tank and artillery fire, the US lost 8 vehicles
during the Battle of Nasiriyah, after which it became obvious that the Marines
were in need of an upgrade. However, with priorities shifted to the war on terror,
securing a modern amphibious assault vehicle was low on any future acquisitions list.
That changed dramatically starting in the 2010s, when it became obvious that
America's next conflict would likely take place in the South Pacific against China. This would
be a war defined by amphibious operations against well-defended Chinese positions on
outlying islands, and the AAV-7 was simply not up to the task.
Its 45 mm armor no longer provides adequate protection against
modern threats, and its Mk 19 grenade launcher and .50 caliber machine gun
are insufficient firepower for threats against a near-peer adversary such as China. With expected
losses of ground-support aircraft to Chinese air defenses, the AAV-7 needs to be able to
fight on its own against armored threats- a task it is simply not up to at the moment.
In 2003 the AAV was scheduled for replacement with the Advanced Assault Amphibious Vehicle program,
which would feature three times the speed in water, twice the armor,
and superior weapons. However, ultimately the program was canceled in 2011. Today the
AAV is slated to be replaced with the SuperAV, which features upgraded armor and firepower.
Our next worst weapon was supposed to revolutionize naval warfare (again),
but couldn't even fire its main gun.
Zumwalt Class Destroyer – United States
It's the strangest, and most high-tech surface vessel in the world.
It's also all but defenseless against most threats.
The Zumwalt Class Destroyer was supposed to be yet another wonder weapon from the US Navy. At
the time of its conception in the 1990s, the US Navy was the undisputed king of the seas. Analysts
saw no naval threat to the United States, and thus conceived of future naval combat vessels as
requiring a robust shore bombardment capability. Ideally in the form of long-range cannons that
could be as accurate as a cruise missile with comparable range, but a fraction the cost.
Thus the Zumwault was conceived. With an emphasis on stealth,
the Zumwault has a radar signature of a small fishing vessel, and thanks to
automation its crew is less than half that of a traditional destroyer or frigate. The ship also
features cooled exhaust and electrically driven engines for reducing its infrared signature,
as well as the capability to generate more electricity than any other ship in its class-
a prerequisite for integration of advanced future weapons such as railguns and lasers.
Perhaps the ship's greatest failure was its main armament,
the Long Range Land Attack Projectile. These GPS guided shells would be able
to strike with pinpoint accuracy any target up to 60 miles away. However, each round ended up
being prohibitively expensive- costing a whopping $800,000 at time of cancellation of the project.
With a 600 round capacity, each Zumwault would have cost $480 million just to arm. The Navy
desperately searched for a replacement ammunition for the Zumwault's Advanced
Gun System, but just last November decided to ultimately scrap plans for a cannon altogether
and simply arm each of the three vessels commissioned with future hypersonic missiles.
Further failures come with the ship's radar- originally slated to house the SPY-4 volume
search radar alongside a SPY-3 hi-resolution targeting radar, the Navy instead opted to
modify its SPY-3 radar to handle volume search as well, seriously degrading the
ship's ability to detect airborne targets and defend itself or other ships in the fleet.
This leaves the Zumwault with no operational deck gun and only short-range Evolved Sea Sparrow air
defense missiles. While it's capable of firing larger missiles from its cells,
the ship lacks Aegis Combat System capabilities and thus must rely on networked ships to guide
its own missiles to target- a capability to be seriously degraded in a confrontation with
a near-peer foe such as China. Its close in weapon system was also degraded from
the standard 57 millimeter chain gun to a 30 millimeter cannon. The famed radar
cross section was seriously compromised when in another cost-cutting measure,
lower quality steel and non-flush sensor and communication masts were installed.
In the end, the Zumwault can't do anything it was slated to do,
and must rely on future weapons and network capabilities to carry the fight to an enemy.
It is just another massive waste of taxpayer money in a long series of post-Cold War ear military
boondoggles that have eroded America's capability to fight and win against a peer adversary.
Our next worst weapon in service today was supposed to rule the air,
instead it showcased a lack of technological maturity from one of the world's biggest powers.
J-20 Stealth Fighter – China The J-20 is a massive leap forward for
a nation who in 1990 had an air force incapable of challenging even just the US Navy- however,
the aircraft is without a doubt the worst of the current four 5th generation jets in service today.
Technical details are difficult to ascertain due to the secretive nature of the aircraft,
but it's immediately obvious that the plane has a much larger radar cross section than the F-22,
the F-35, or Russia's Su-57. This is because of the canards the aircraft must incorporate
because of another massive deficiency in Chinese aircraft design- jet engines. China
has yet to produce a domestic jet engine with capabilities comparable to the US or Russia,
and relies on lower-quality export-model engines from Russia for its aircraft.
The J-20's engines can produce 125 kilonewtons of thrust,
compared to the F-22's 156 kilonewtons and the F-35's 190 kilonewtons. China's weaker
engines means the plane requires canards for stability, increasing its radar profile,
and is much more limited in the types of weapons it can bring to a battle. In a dogfight scenario,
the plane's lower thrust also puts it in serious jeopardy against its American or
Russian competitors. Recently J-20s have begun to be fitted with more powerful Chinese engines,
but even these fail to match American engines in performance, still leaving the J-20 short.
Despite being touted as a 5th generation fighter, the plane's stealth is also in serious question as
the Indian air force has multiple times claimed to have detected the J-20 at long ranges while
using older radar systems. China has already moved past the J-20 and is looking ahead at a
6th generation plane, using the lessons learned on the J-20. Despite its impressive catching up
to the more technologically advanced Russian and American aerospace industries, China is still
lagging considerably behind both nations and its current fleet of J-20s are vulnerable in combat
against its most likely opponent in the coming years: the United States Navy and Air Force.
Now go check out Most Successful Weapons ever Invented, or click this other video instead!