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Weapons Evolution

Aviation ordnancemen from Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 41 handle an AIM-9X Sidewinder, September 2009.

The Sidewinder, which the Office of Naval Research calls the world’s most widely used air-to-air missile, began as a side project and remains in active service more than 70 years later

A physicist at a Navy test station wanted a cheap missile that could find an

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BLU-82 bomb on its cradle in a museum hangar

How C-130 crews dropped the BLU-82, a 15,000-pound bomb only cargo aircraft could carry, by parachute to clear helicopter landing zones about 260 feet across

The BLU-82/B weighed 15,000 pounds and was built to make room, not to hit a

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Black-and-white photo of a U.S. soldier kneeling with an M1 bazooka

The bazooka took its name from radio comedian Bob Burns’ homemade trombone, and General Electric had 5,000 of the rocket launchers ready for combat by May 1942

A homemade horn built by an Arkansas radio comedian gave a World War II U.S.

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An M1 carbine displayed in a museum case

Over 6 million M1 carbines were built by 1945, making it the most widely produced military arm in U.S. history, the National Firearms Museum says

The specification called for a rifle that weighed no more than five pounds. What the

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John Moses Browning, seated with one of his machine guns, in a photo from before his death in 1926.

John Browning designed over 100 guns, and his .50-caliber machine gun has been used in every U.S. conflict since World War II, the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force says

John Moses Browning, born to a gunsmith in the Utah Territory in 1855, left behind

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A U.S. Army military police soldier qualifies with the M9 pistol in 2016.

Why the Army traded the .45-caliber M1911 for the 9mm Beretta M9 in 1985

A 9mm pistol, the Beretta 92F, displaced the .45-caliber M1911A1 as the standard U.S. military

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A V-2 rocket on its Meillerwagen transporter during the postwar Operation Backfire tests near Cuxhaven, 1945.

Germany’s V-2 rocket first flew successfully on Oct. 3, 1942, climbing 60 miles high at 3,300 mph on a 125-mile flight

Peenemünde, on Germany’s Baltic coast, had already watched its new rocket fail twice when the

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“Because We Need More Corruption and Billionaire Influence at the Pentagon” — Rep. Jayapal Torches Elon Musk’s New Pentagon Role, “DOD Should Be Protecting the American People, Not Lining the Pockets of Billionaire Defense Contractors”

“Because We Need More Corruption and Billionaire Influence at the Pentagon” — Rep. Jayapal Torches Elon Musk’s New Pentagon Role, “DOD Should Be Protecting the American People, Not Lining the Pockets of Billionaire Defense Contractors”

U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) on Monday accused Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of ushering corruption

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Markey Says “We Cannot Trust Saudi Leaders” on the 8th Anniversary of Khashoggi’s “Brutal Slaying,” Accuses Trump of Letting Them Enrich Uranium That “Could Be Used for Nuclear Bombs” — Tells Congress to “Stop the Deal”

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) used the eighth anniversary of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi’s killing

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Markey Says Musk Will “Push His AI and Space Technologies” and “Make Money From Defense Contracts” Through New Pentagon Role Co-Directing Project Meridian on Future Battlefields —“Handing Over Your Taxpayer Money to a Trillionaire”

Markey Says Musk Will “Push His AI and Space Technologies” and “Make Money From Defense Contracts” Through New Pentagon Role Co-Directing Project Meridian on Future Battlefields —“Handing Over Your Taxpayer Money to a Trillionaire”

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said on Thursday that Elon Musk will “push his AI and

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