What are the 10 Unbelievable Sci-Fi Weapons That Already Exist? From machine guns and tanks in World War One to aircraft and nukes in World War Two, we’ve gone a long way. Nobody loves the concept of a full-fledged war, but preparations must be taken to guarantee that we are on the winning side if one does break out. Military weaponry and operations methods are evolving at a rapid pace as technology advances.
Unmanned drones capable of unleashing fury from the sky, lasers capable of destroying enemy planes, and exoskeletons capable of providing warriors with superhuman strength are rapidly becoming a reality in this era of information technology. Today, we’ll look at some incredible sci-fi weaponry that exists.
Governments in countries with large military budgets, such as the United States and Russia, spend billions of dollars researching and developing new ways to threaten the other, and in this age, when every second country is a nuclear power, countries have begun researching technologies that can cripple a nation’s military infrastructure with a pinpointed strike to the communication network before it has the opportunity to launch a single nuke.
These assaults include computer attacks, laser-equipped military satellites, and railguns. Continue reading for a list of the top ten breakthroughs that might permanently transform the way we conduct war in the future — the ten sci-fi weapons that currently exist:
List the 10 Unbelievable Sci-Fi Weapons That Already Exist:
10. Unmanned Underwater Vehicles
These may seem to be novel ideas, yet the philosophy underlying them has been around for quite some time. Nuclear submarines may stay underwater and undiscovered in a nation’s sea space for months, only to deploy an array of nuclear missiles when conflict breaks out. Russia’s diesel submarines claim to be the quietest in the world, emitting an underwater hum that is as difficult to detect as a single automobile engine noise in a traffic jam. To combat this, the US Ministry of Defense and DARPA have established several initiatives, including autonomous robot ships that can hunt down enemy submarines.
The “Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel” (ACTUV) is an existing sci-fi weapon meant to pursue the next generation of virtually quiet enemy diesel submarines. It is built on a diesel-electric submarine platform and is capable of avoiding random moving boats in the water as well as monitoring hostile vessels independently. In comparison to nuclear submarines, this technology is both inexpensive and efficient, as well as autonomous. DARPA is also working on the HYDRA program, which features a big UUV mothership capable of deploying smaller unmanned vehicles and submarines capable of hunting and tracking hostile vessels as well as guarding a nation’s shoreline.
9. Powered Exoskeletons
Everyone who has seen the Iron Man movies has fantasized about donning one of those suits and flying at supersonic speeds, gunning down terrorists and dispatching whole squads of bad men with a single flick of the wrist. Although supersonic flying suits are still a long way off, the United States is heavily interested in studying and manufacturing powered exoskeletons, a kind of wearing body armour that offers its user an increase in strength and endurance.
In collaboration with Ekso Bionics, Lockheed Martin developed the HULC (Human Universal Load Carrier). This hydraulic-powered exoskeleton is one of the sci-fi weapons that currently exist, and it enables warriors to carry up to 200 pounds of weight and move at a pace of 10 miles per hour for a long period.
Another comparable initiative is the Warrior Web (from Ekso Bionics in collaboration with DARPA), which is a small-weight, low-power, under-the-clothes exoskeleton that enables users to walk, climb, and sprint quicker with no additional effort. One of the most extreme initiatives is Special Operations Command’s (SOCOM) TALOS, which is an iron man-inspired suit designed to defend commandos and special operations, soldiers, from rebel gunfire during building assaults.
Furthermore, it is claimed to give the bearer increased strength and endurance. The program’s key challenges include power supply, enabling the operator’s freedom of movement, and latency concerns on the helmet visor. And after they’ve resolved all of these challenges, the only thing left to do is create a pair of flying boots.
8. Rail Guns
Another sci-fi weapon that already exists is the railgun, which is a type of gun that, unlike a conventional gun, does not use an explosive charge to propel a projectile, but rather relies on magnetic force (Lorentz force specifically) generated by passing a current through two rails to accelerate a metallic armature to fire a projectile at speeds of up to 5400 miles per hour over vast distances exceeding a hundred miles.
The US Navy has already produced prototypes and intends to deploy them aboard warships in the next years. This cannon is designed to be effective against a wide range of threats, including aircraft, small boats, ground targets for bombardment, and even other warships.
While conventional warheads and cruise missiles cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to do the same duties, each railgun bullet costs just approximately $25000, making it very cost-effective. With testing expected for this year and the Navy already preparing to put prototypes aboard Zumwalt class destroyers, it is only a matter of time until these new weapons solidify the US Navy’s supremacy over the seas.
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7. Military Lasers
We’ve seen enough of laser weapons in Star Wars and countless alien invasion movies, and it seems that it’s going to become a reality, with the US and UK aggressively creating and testing prototypes of military lasers for objectives ranging from destroying unmanned drones to taking out incoming missiles.
These ray weapons not only look fantastic in the movies, but they also seem to be pretty effective in real life. The US Navy tested its new Laser Weapons System, or LaWS, onboard the USS Ponce in the Gulf in 2014. During the test, it successfully took out a UAV and a simulated boat assault.
The LaWS combines the power of six individual solid-state lasers to produce a beam with a maximum strength of 30kW that may be used to fry motors, sensors, and hazardous explosives, as well as burn through metal. Also, at $1 per shot (ignoring the millions spent on research), it’s dirt inexpensive (if you ignore the millions spent on research), and it’s reported to have a range of 10 miles.
Stronger versions of this technology, which are expected to be aboard ships by 2017, are undoubtedly on the way. Furthermore, the British Ministry of Defense, inspired by their American colleagues, has launched a project dubbed the Laser Directed Energy Weapon Capability Demonstrator, to develop a laser compared to the LaWS. Countries such as Israel and China have also entered the laser arms race.
At this rate, aliens may have to reconsider their next invasion of Earth. Among the ten spectacular sci-fi weapons that currently exist are laser guns.
6. Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAV’s)
These are essentially Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) that are larger, have greater weaponry, and are therefore better adapted to war rather than reconnaissance and surveillance, as most UAVs are utilized today.
Consider the HKs in Terminator movies. Isn’t it terrifying? UCAVs are substantially lighter and smaller than traditional military aircraft since they do not need the standard equipment required for a human pilot, such as a cockpit, armour, oxygen supply, control panels, and so on.
While numerous nations manufacture UAVs, the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, and China are the only countries actively participating in the creation and research of combat-capable UAVs.
Among the existing sci-fi weapons is the Boeing XJ-45, a UCAV under development that can drop smart bombs, is stealthy, and can carry a 680kg payload. The United Kingdom possesses its unmanned aerial vehicles (UCAVs) in the shape of the BAe systems Mantis and Taranis.
5. Insect Drones
The idea that an insect might be working for the CIA or the Kremlin seems ridiculous, yet there may be a handful out there that we don’t even know about. Insects are among the sci-fi weapons that currently exist and can search for survivors in a war-damaged metropolis or an earthquake-ravaged terrain where no human can.
They can also do espionage tasks that no person could hope to perform, like slipping into a conference room and streaming the whole meeting surreptitiously, or hunting for terrorists hidden deep in the woods.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which is well-known for producing military robotics and exoskeletons for troops, is also active in the development of insect drones and micro UAVs inspired by birds of prey such as the hawk and small enough to pass through an open window.
The United States military is also participating in similar research, with the Army Research Lab in Adelphi, Maryland developing a robotic drone based on an insect with a wingspan of 3-4 cm. A substance called lead zirconium titanate (PZT) causes the wings to flap and flex when a tiny voltage is put through them.
Harvard now possesses the world’s smallest drone, which weighs 60 milligrams and is 3 centimetres in length. The military is developing a drone that is three times smaller.
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4. Invisibility Cloaks
The US army has long been working on a Harry Potter-style invisibility cloak that would enable them to slip into and out of active battles, places where rebels are holding people hostage, and even top-secret sites. Although it seemed for a long time that government money was being squandered, certain individuals ultimately developed ways to disguise both man and flying machines.
Professor Boubacar Kante and his colleagues at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) developed a “dielectric metasurface cloak,” a material that works by altering electromagnetic wavelengths like visible light as well as radio frequencies like those utilized in radar systems.
The invisibility cloak is one of the top ten incredible sci-fi weapons that exist today. Its substance is made of Teflon and ceramic, making it less expensive to make than competing cloaking technologies. Because of its propensity to scatter electromagnetic waves, the material can only be employed to conceal an item from radar or the human eye at a time. Because of its low cost and lightweight, it is likely to be utilized shortly by the military to cloak anything from a predator drone to an A-10 fighter plane.
3. Force Fields
In our list of existing sci-fi weapons, here is another Star Wars idea brought to life, at least partly by Boeing. These guys have a patent for a force-field-like defence system meant to defend objects such as cars or small structures from shock waves caused by explosions such as IEDs, RPGs, small missiles, or rockets. It does not defend against direct collision, but rather against the ensuing shock wave caused by the explosion.
The device makes use of an electromagnetic shield of plasma (a superheated air pocket) created by lasers, microwaves, and high-voltage electric arcs. Before the shock wave reaches a shielded target, this zone of superheated and ionized air intercepts it and attenuates (decreases or disperses) its energy. Given that shock waves and debris are the primary drivers of damage in explosions, this is an excellent approach for protecting susceptible sites.
This, however, is a transitory field that is dependent on a sensor that detects an explosion before forming the protective field surrounding the target. It will probably be some time before we see Star Wars’ impenetrable force fields or anything resembling a Green Lantern shield, but we seem to be moving in the right direction.
2. Nanobots
Through its ElectRx program, the US Department of Defense-funded super high-tech and confidential research division DARPA is said to be involved in the development of nano-sized robotic doctors that can be injected into the human body and bloodstream via a simple injection needle to monitor, detect, and even treat people suffering from certain ailments. DARPA’s project is one of the existing sci-fi weapons and is focused on conditions that are not treated with traditional treatments, such as persistent pain, inflammatory disease, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Various intelligent nano-bots essentially “get on your nerves” and stimulate certain areas of your body to heal you of these maladies. One day, these small intelligent bots may be able to assist us in curing ourselves from the inside with minimum external intervention, such as surgery. However, let us hope that shortly, these robots do not develop their intellect and take over several human brains since this would result in zombie-like cyborgs threatening all of mankind.
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1. Cyborgs
When we speak about cyborgs among the sci-fi weapons that currently exist, we don’t mean the half-human, half-machine Frankenstein monsters who appear in movies, with incredible strength and firearms protruding from every bodily part. Rather, the cyborgs that seem to be a future reality are considerably more subtle, capable of seamlessly connecting their thoughts with that of a computer chip, resulting in flawless data transfer and new possibilities.
The NESD, or Neural Engineering System Design, initiative is being discussed. The objective is to create an implanted bionic chip that enables a seamless interface between a human brain, which is a cluster of millions of neurons, and a computer network.
The device converts our neurons’ electrical impulses into signals that a computer can interpret, and it does it on a massive scale, linking the chip to millions of neurons. This might aid battle warriors by increasing their senses of sight, smell, and hearing, and it could allow the average person to see information from across the globe whenever they want, Google searches anybody or anything in our sights, and read and analyze whole databases at a moment’s notice.
It may even enable us to communicate with the brain of another individual. The possibilities are unlimited, and this may be the next stage in human growth, or it could result in some massive disaster if we were able to alter minds with a few key clicks; only time will reveal the potential and advantages of this technology.
