Random Unique Russian Military Inventions (17 items)

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  (#13) Lun-class ekranoplan

  • Aircraft model

  Also called a "ground effect aircraft," the ekranoplan is neither aircraft nor hovercraft. They're technically classified as ships, despite having wings and a tail. The Lun class was the largest of many different Soviet ekranoplans - three were built for military service, armed with powerful anti-ship missiles.

  They served from 1987 through the late '90s, at which time two were scrapped. One still exists in situ, with new designs being worked on by Russian engineers.
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  (#5) Tsar Tank

   

  A completely impractical tank design, the Tsar Tank was a huge armored vehicle designed like a giant reverse tricycle. It had huge front wheels measuring 30 feet in diameter and a small back wheel for balance.

  Designed to be bristling with weapons and able to traverse any kind of terrain, the machine turned out to be slow and prone to breakdowns, mostly due to its small rear wheel. It also would have been an easy target, as it had no ability to carry armor and its wheels were unprotected. A prototype was built in 1914, but never got past that stage.

   
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  (#9) Antonov A-40

  • Aircraft model

  Designed to be airlifted in support of airborne or partisan operations, the A-40 was a light tank with glider wings attached to it. It would be towed by a larger aircraft, then released over the desired landing area. One prototype was built, but the design was impossible to tow by the small aircraft of the day, and there was no assurance that the tank and the crew would land together - or that any of it would land without being destroyed or overtaken by the enemy.

  The project was scrapped - though it was a better idea than what the Soviets had previously tried, which was simply dropping a tank out of a cargo plane, and having the crew parachute down.
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  (#7) Corkscrew Tank

  Pondering a way to transport troops over inhospitable ground, Cold War engineers developed the idea of using giant corkscrews as treads. 

  The problem was that while the tank could move decently through muddy or snowy ground, it was useless on roads or on flat, hard ground. It also could only go forward or backwards, couldn't turn, and was both incredibly slow and prone to breakdowns. The Soviets did use some in Arctic areas, but found them to be highly impractical in most other environmental contexts. 
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  (#6) Tupolev Tu-95LAL

  • Aircraft model

  The arms race between the US and the Soviet Union didn't end at missiles and ships - it extended to experimental planes with no practical application. So when the US started developing a nuclear-powered bomber, the Convair NB-36H Crusader, Russia jumped in with their own designs. Tupolev engineers took one of their existing Tu-95 bombers and fitted it with a small nuclear reactor and shielding to protect the crew.

  The LAL made over 40 test flights, but most with the reactor turned off. Concerns about the effectiveness of the shielding never went away. A second version, the Tu-119, was started, but the program was canceled due to cost and environmental concerns. These are the same reasons the US program was canceled.
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  (#1) Tsar Bomba

  On October 30, 1961, the Soviet Union detonated the most powerful and destructive weapon ever created - the AN602 hydrogen bomb, nicknamed "Tsar Bomba" - in keeping with a variety of other large and unwieldy Russian weapons.

  Tsar Bomba exploded with a yield of 50 to 60 megatons. This was equivalent to 3,800 times the power of the device dropped on Hiroshima by the US during WWII. It produced a mushroom cloud 37 miles high and the light from the detonation was seen up to 620 miles away. It completely leveled an uninhabited village 34 miles from ground zero and reportedly caused damage to structures as far away as 100 miles. Heat from the blast would have caused third-degree burns up to 62 miles away. It was only tested once.

   

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