Random Weirdest Innovations in Military Technology (18 items)

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  (#1) An Epilepsy Gun Inspired by Pokemon

  In 1997, an episode of the Pokemon animated show had a certain pattern of flashing lights that induced epileptic symptoms in hundreds of viewers. The military saw this and said, "I want it," so they developed a gun that would use electromagnetic pulses to induce convulsions. While it never really went anywhere, the research done to design it will probably lead to something pretty bizarre someday. 
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  (#2) A Gun That Makes You Vomit

  Because we didn't have enough non-violent ways to take people out, the Navy contracted a company to create a weapon that used radio frequencies to give people motion sickness. There's another version that used LED light pulses to achieve a similar effect.
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  (#3) The Ultimate Stink Bomb

  Sometimes, you just need a quick way to disperse a crowd, so the Israeli Defense Force created this lovely little liquid called "skunk," which is said to smell like a "cross between a dead animal and human excrement." It may be disgusting, but it's not lethal. In fact, apparently it's so nontoxic, you can actually drink it and be fine... if you don't vomit first. 
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  (#4) A Flying Segway

  We all want flying cars and personal jet backs, and so did the armed forces back in the day. In the 1950s, the Navy was developing a personal airborne transportation device that looked like a hovering segway. They even had a working prototype, but eventually it was deemed too impractical to explore the innovation further. 
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  (#5) A Heat Ray

  Yup, the military created a heat ray to break up unruly crowds - and they called it the "active denial system," because the "the heat ray" didn't sound juvenile enough. 

  This powerful, painful blast of heat is extremely unpleasant but causes no serious long-term effects, making it relatively safe and humane. Also called a "pain ray," it's pretty effective, when it works, but it's rarely used. Maybe that's because it doesn't really work in rain, snow, or dust, and it takes 16 hours to charge up.
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  (#6) A Bomb Made of Dead Rats

  World War II brought about some pretty big innovations, but the use of biological warfare was widely frowned upon after all the terrible gasses that had been used in WWI. However, that didn't stop the Japanese from loading up a plane with a ton of rats and fleas infected with the bubonic plague. They intended to drop these things onto the East Coast, which is just silly for two reasons: there's no way they wouldn't be spotted that far into American airspace, and there's no way they'd have a plane with that much fuel. 
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  (#7) Landmines Delivered by Balloon

  Near the end of World War II, things weren't going too well for Japan, so they tried using some unconventional warfare to bomb the United States. They tied bombs to hydrogen balloons and hoped the wind would carry them over to the United States, where they'd blow us all up. You have to give them points for originality, but the bombs either fell into the sea or failed to detonate when they reached American shores. 
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  (#8) A Transmitter That Looks Like Dog Poop

  When you're in enemy territory and you're trying to call in reinforcements or extraction, the last thing you want is for the enemy to destroy your transmitter. That's why the military developed an inconspicuous transmitter that looked like dog poop. It acted as a homing device, and it blended in well with its surroundings, so animals or enemy soldiers wouldn't touch it. 
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  (#9) The Corkscrew Tank

  The Russians didn't have the best technology, but they had numbers and persistence. So when they needed a tank to travel over difficult patches of land, they came up with this bad boy. It actually worked, and had the added bonus of being scary as hell. 
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  (#10) GE Walking Truck

  If you ever watched the power loader scenes in Aliens and wondered why those machines don't exist - well, they kinda do. Back in the 60s, the army developed the walking truck to transport supplies over terrain normal trucks couldn't. But after all the development, it just turned out regular trucks were still easier to use in the long run. 
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  (#11) A One-Wheeled Tank

  The one-wheeled tank was the brainchild of a New York inventor who thought a unicycle tank would change modern warfare for good. A quick strike vehicle outfitted with machine guns, it would have been a one-man attack craft meant to cause chaos in the enemy ranks. Apparently a prototype was built and it was claimed to be very fuel efficient, but alas, it never went anywhere. The closest thing we got in the meantime was featured in a classic South Park episode. 
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  (#12) The M-29 Davy Crockett Weapon System

  It just wasn't enough for the military to drop nukes from planes. Nope, they had to develop man-portable nuclear rocket launchers. The problem here is that the launcher was essentially a suicide weapon. If the guy firing off the nuke didn't die in his own bomb's blast, he'd still get a lethal dose of radiation. 
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  (#13) The Focke-Wulf Triebfluegel

  By the end of the second World War, the Nazis were developing a wingless fighter. Instead of wings, it had rotating thrusters to propel it forward from a vertical takeoff. The advantage to the fighter would be that you wouldn't need an airfield to launch it, but the Allies took the Nazi's research facilities before they were able to fully test it out. Still, there's probably some crazy alternate world fiction out there with this thing in it.  
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  (#14) The Laptop Gun

  Fans of the game Perfect Dark will dig this one. The folding machine gun (FMG) is a 9mm submachine gun that can take 30 round clips. It's designed to be disguised as a laptop battery, which means its main function is probably to be smuggled through airports. The problem is, batteries are getting smaller all the time, so there's no way this thing would pass a visual inspection these days. Oops. 
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  (#15) A Pistol Controlled by a Wristwatch

  If you've seen Skyfall, you know what's coming with this one. This handgun requires fingerprint ID and is tied into the user's wristwatch. There's a safety built into the wrist watch so no one can turn the gun on you. It even has a little green light in the back, just like in the movie. 
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  (#16) The Rocket Belt

  Yup. The Army tried to make a jet pack. It used hydrogen peroxide and nitrogen as fuel and actually worked to get a person in the air for a reasonable amount of time. So why don't we see these things around today? Well, they discovered that planes and helicopters were just way easier to use. 
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  (#17) A Grenade Launcher That Shoots Around Corners

  Because a blindfired explosive just isn't good enough, the military designed a launcher that can turn around corners so you don't have to. It even has a little camera to help you aim. The weapon is capable of firing 60mm rounds and tear gas - but does it take bean bags?
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  (#18) Silly Putty

  Silly Putty was not intended to be a kid's toy. In fact, it was accidentally discovered as a chemical substitute for rubber, which the military greatly needed during World War II. While the putty wouldn't do for the military,  they discovered kids couldn't get enough of the stuff. 

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