"best" miltary invention?

to me the "best" military invention would have to be a nuclear class Ballistic Missile Submarine or Cruise Missile Submarine

examples the VANGUARD class, TYPHOON class or the OSCAR 2 class


HMS VANGUARD

to me submarines has always embodied "stealth" long before the term
they have become more silent and more deadly than ever before.
they are deck out and equipment in the latest weapons and technologies
and just a single submarine packs more "punch" more "firepower" than most of todays armies put together

other notables

the best tank invention to me is the T34/85 its track record in combat against an "very highly skilled" opponent, slopped armor, and ingenuity(that still can be found in most of todays modern tanks) speaks for itself

to me the best assault firearm(rifle) invention is the legendary AK-47
the AK-47 has been involved in just about ever conflict on earth from the streets of Los Angeles to todays BAGHDAD

to me the best aircraft invention is between the F-22(at this time) and the legendary HARRIER
the HARRIER because of its VSTOL capability
the F-22 because it takes fighters design and capability to new level

Best military invention in my mind, and there's been some good-uns so far would be :-

The Bow and Arrow.

Before the Bow, the spear/javlin was the long range weapon of choice with an accurate range of about 20m

The Sling with a better range but less accuracy..

Then the Bow came along ranges in excess of 300m. Changed the face of warfare forever. So my vote goes to the good ole Bow an' Arrow..

My vote goes to the smart bomb. During the Vietnam war all the way up until today, it has prooven that you can destroy your target without much or even any collateral damage. Not to mention its pretty damn cool to watch the bombs camera head right into the front door of the target.

Cavalry was only the dominant force in wars (at least european ones) for about 3 centuries, till the longbow turned up around 1300 and slaughtered them by the thousand

Paperplane, they were the dominant warriors on the field from about 500 BC to about 1500. The longbow didn't kill them...made life difficult, but a longbowman took a long time to train. Likewise, the crossbow took a fair amount of training and strength to use. That, coupled with major advances in armoring (re:gothic platemail) made the calvary a dominant force until the age of gunpowder.

DE

I would have to say the P51 Mustang was one of the best fighters of all time. Not many of the Nazi aircraft could out manuver a P51.

Indeed strategy is probably the best "invention". Especially intelligence gathering/spies.

The best invention by any military ever would be the internet. Think about it for a second it revolutionized the world. Never has anyone been able to access so much information.

The Medevac and SAR helicopters and their crews. No other device developed for the military has saved as many lives, both military and civilian.

Ever heard of antibiotics?

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On a second thought I would nominate the antibiotics as the best single invention for the military. It is known that a good part up to a majority of deaths and incapacitations in war were a result of illnesses and infections before that.

Both the german Sulfonamids and the british Penicillin changed the fate of infected wounded that was almost inevitable for thousands of years before. And though both werent a result of a military research (like many decisive developments in the military field), they were both cultivated for a military use first.

[edit on 21/4/2006 by Lonestar24]

This is EASY.

If we are talking about weapons that made armies undefeatable literally overnight and changed the face of warfare, it can only be:

The English Longbow.

The first "assault rifle" so to speak, armies were decimated at the receiving end of a longbow.

Fantastic range and accuracy. A skilled bowman could fire 4-6 arrows a minute and maintain accuracy at 100 yards or more. Whole lines of archers equipped with the longbow could narrow the ranks of on coming forces by 50% or better before they closed to melee distances.

The English longbow in the day was every bit as much of an advancement as the machine gun was for WWI.


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Even the heaviest plate armor could not stop a square on shot from the longbow.




[edit on 21-4-2006 by skippytjc]

I think the best military invention has to be the "Global Positioning System" (GPS).

I'll give you the point, but antibiotics were not developed for the military specifically. The production methods were improved and capacity was increased by their use in WWII though. Medevac and SAR helos were a military developement that carried through to the civilian world. You might also want to add Trauma Care to that list as well.

Camoflage did quite a bit to keep soldiers save in woodland and desert enviroments, more so than the olav drab, etc type uniforms.

The things that changed conflict over the centuries is the following:

-Club, Stick or other blunt object made us able to strike an oponent from a longer range than they could punch us.
-Spear or simply a stick with a sharp point made us able to strike a club wielding oponent from a longer range yet.
-Javelin, could be thrown at a longer range yet.
-Sword, shield and armor, a good ballance between striking distance and power and protection.
-Bow and Arrow (already discussed enough), could penetrate armor.
-Crossbow, was so effective that it was outlawed for use in warfare for a long time.
-Gunpowder, first in the forms of Artillery such as Cannons, later became muskets, match-lock, wheel lock, flint-lock, etc, later the cardridge firearms were invented which truly made the firearm a revolutionary weapon, soon after that was the machinegun that in it self was banned (or some saught for it to be banned for military use).
-The Aircraft, definitly increased striking power and mobillity of the Army and later Airforce.
-The Nuclear Bomb, never in the world was there a weapon that could destroy entire cities in a few seconds, prevented many wars, esspecially world-wars, nuclear deterence and mutual assured destruction kept this world reletively peaceful.
-Computers, aided us in navigation, communication and design.
-Spy Planes made reconaisance of hostile countries possible without putting the spy at as much risk as being embedded in the country it self.
-Spy Satelites and Satelite communication, this eliminated the risk to anyone and allowed for an unrestricted view of the enemy.
-Internet and global communication revolutionized the world, including the way war was fought, Cyberspace became a new battlefront, esspecially against spies and hackers from hostile countries.

There were plenty of other advancement that were notable and i'm sure I missed something or missinterpited things somewhat, so I aplogize, I am not stating this all as fact but simply as a general list of how warfare advanced in my view, the biggest factors and/or trends was to keep distance from the warrior and the opponment and to keep the warrior safe, those are trends continued through the ages.

I have to say the best military invention isnt really an invention at all.It's more or a tactic. I'd vote for guerilla warfare. That really changed the way the world fights wars.Tons more effective than marching side by side straight at the enemy. The native americans fought this way and were amazingly affective.

I think that the greatest asset to the modern battlefield would be the sniper weapon. In the beginning we were using hidden soldiers with bow and arrows. Now we are using hidden men with .50cal anti-everything rounds. think about it, If you put a single sniper in a hidden location, with a supresser, and a flash killer, and a ton of ammo, he could cause fear, and death. And some of the greatest men were killed by snipers.

Beat me to it Doc, It's the only one I've seen listed that doesn't kill. As a matter of fact it is probably the only one that has revolutionized the entire world ithout the need to conquer someone.

Skippy, I think your euro-centrism is showing.

The 'English' longbow (which should properly be called the Welsh longbow, since the first time the English saw it, it was kicking their butt) was impressive for the environment, sure, but archers had been dominating battlefields since..I don't even know when, probably since the Paleolithic.

If you look at the longbow as an evolution of the bow, there are no real improvements. It's just a big bow. Compared to the small, recurved bows used by mounted archers (2000 years earlier), the longbow appears quite primitive.

It has a much better range, but you can't move and fire, and for maximum efficiency the shooters must be attended. The range of movement with a long bow is very limited, you can't be reaching around, turning in tight ranks, or ducking for cover.

The longbow chewed up ponderous infantry and calvalry that mistakenly thought it was infantry, but if you think about it, it's practically useless against highly mobile groups of archers/crossbowmen/slingers/javelineers.

Seems like a stiff, clumsy weapon, for what was almost certainly a stiff, clumsy army. A lot of people use the outcome of battles from the 100 years war to justify their lofty praise of the longbow, but the French tactics were crap!

The French had a big rock, a superior force. They essentially broke the rock into tiny pieces and threw them one by one at the English.

A Scotsman would have known better. Throw the whole damn rock!



I hope nobody takes this post the wrong way, no animosity intended. I just love a good argument.

[edit on 21-4-2006 by WyrdeOne]

Best military invention of all-time, the wheel. The wheel drastically changed the way every war has been faught for the last 4 thousand years.

Sun Tzu: THE ART OF WAR
Is the single best peice of literature writtin by anyone ever.


"All warfare is based on deception.
Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable;
when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we
are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away;
when far away, we must make him believe we are near."

The creation of this ancient Chinese literature still has value as mentioned if you can deceive your enemy you can win.

I know this is not an invention but it revolutionized warfare.