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    F-22 Raptor

    F-22 Raptor

    [ranking: 4]
    The $450 million machine that is the F-22 Raptor has never once in its 25-year history fired a shot in anger. The world's first fifth-generation fighter has yet to find a target deserving of risking its expensive hide, especially since the Soviet Union collapsed. True, there are other fifth-gen fighters out there, but they're all still playing catch-up to the F-22 in terms of design and performance.
    Lockheed won't be making any new F-22s for the foreseeable future. You could call that a shame, but as long as we're not using it, that means we're not at war with anyone dangerous enough. 

    Boeing YAL-1

    Boeing YAL-1

    [ranking: 14]
    Dating back to the Reagan years, the Boeing YAL-1 was part of the Airborne Laser program. Billions were spent on the machine, which was meant to be a massive futuristic machine that could shoot down ballistic projectiles using lasers. However, the machine proved a failure for a variety of reasons.
    First, the lasers were not strong enough to shoot down enemy projectiles without orbiting dangerously close. Second, even if this could be corrected, the machine was extremely large. The army envisioned a fleet of Boeing YAL-1 aircrafts orbiting near enemy countries, but this would have been astronomically expensive. In the end, the Boeing YAL-1 became one of many that were too ineffective and expensive for the government to sustain. 

    2,000 M1 Abrams Tanks

    2,000 M1 Abrams Tanks

    [ranking: 15]
    America has a government program known as "The Military Industrial Complex," and that complex needs something to do whether the military needs it or not. Case in point, the Abrams tank, assembled in Lima, Ohio. After "contributing" $5.3 million to the re-election campaigns of House Armed Services Committee Member Hank Johnson (D-GA) and several other members of defense appropriation subcommittees, manufacturer General Dynamics got a $3 billion contract for 2,000 tanks that the Pentagon explicitly said it didn't need or want. Not just because it had enough tanks, either.
    The Abrams, with its flat bottom, has proven very vulnerable to the mines and IEDs typically employed in the middle east, essentially rendering these incredible tools utterly useless. The Pentagon literally would have been better off spending $3 billion on horses and muskets. So, now we've got 2,000 brand new, useless tanks sitting in the desert in the American West, and that great social welfare program known as the Military Industrial Complex rolls on another day. 

    Lun-Class Ekranoplan

    Lun-Class Ekranoplan

    [ranking: 7]
    When it was first spotted by aerial surveillance, intelligence personnel believed "The Caspian Sea Monster" to be an unfinished high-altitude bomber with missing wings. But the Russian Ekranoplane "ground effect" sea skimmer was as fully functional as the Death Star. Like the SLAM, this nuclear bomber was designed to fly under the radar and deliver its massive, 100-ton payload of projectiles before the US Strategic Command had the chance to respond. That's the stealth and hitting power of a large nuclear submarine, with the speed of a jet airliner.
    Ekranoplans don't actually "fly" - they're "ground effect" vehicles, riding on a cushion of compressed air trapped between the ground and their stubby wings. The Russian navy actually did use it through the 1990s as a transport vessel. Good thing for us, since a single ekranoplan would have carried more than enough nuclear ordinance to destroy every major city on the East Coast. 

    Gyrojet Handguns

    Gyrojet Handguns

    [ranking: 16]
    A creative and futuristic firearm, the Gyrojet Handgun's main drawback was that it was utterly ineffective. Instead of pressurized gas, Gyrojets used rocket fuel to launch bullets. What was the purpose of this? Using rocket fuel over gas made the tool significantly lighter. The drawback, however, was that rocket fuel was grossly ineffective at powering bullets and the guns were completely useless at close range due to their slow momentum.
    The company that produced the Gyrojet quickly went out of business. 

    Excalibur Space Laser

    Excalibur Space Laser

    [ranking: 2]
    Otherwise known as "the project that bankrupted the Soviet Union," this space laser was at the heart of the 1984 "Star Wars" program touted by Ronald Reagan. It harnesses the power of a small nuclear blast to create a concentrated dose of X-ray or infrared energy at the Earth. That might sound like a Doctor Evil doomsday device, but this laser was meant to prevent doomsday for the United States.
    It was designed as part of a projectile defense system and would have been used to shoot down incoming ICBMs while they were near orbit themselves. Technical problems, as well as the inability to target multiple warheads, kept this one from becoming a reality, but we could easily do it with modern technology. The air force is already working with airplane-mounted laser cannons to do exactly the same thing.

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About Random Greatest Weapons That Never Saw Action

It's an exciting tool for displaying random greatest weapons that never saw action. We collected a list of "Random Greatest Weapons That Never Saw Action" from ranker, which was screened by countless online votes. You can view random greatest weapons that never saw action shows from this page, click on "Show all by ranking" button to show the complete list, or visit the original page for a more detailed introduction.

It doesn't matter how great in power some armaments seem on paper - sometimes, stuff just happens and even the most ingenious devices end up relegated to the White Elephant chapter of history. Often times, these devices and machinery that never saw action get caught up in a political quagmire, or show up in the wrong place at the wrong time, like when there's no conflict. 

Other times, in the greatest stroke of irony, some of the instruments and machines were just too great for their own good. Too big, too powerful, too expensive - or just too over-the-top to prove practical in battle. But no matter what ultimately kept them off of the field (including peace), it's hard for military hardware enthusiasts to not feel a little pang of regret at the idea of these machines winding up in mothballs.   

Vote up the most innovative armaments that never saw action below, and be sure to let us know what you think in the comment section. 

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