Military vehicles are the entire vehicles used by the military for its daily or routine combat and non-combat activities. It's known that the dynamics of battle can be greatly changed through the various kinds of a vehicle the military adopts. Hence, the military commits a huge chunk of its budget into acquiring the best and most appropriate vehicles available.
Vehicles used by the military are built to be very tough with the ability to withstand varying harsh conditions and terrains synonymous with battlefields. Some of these vehicles include armored trucks, armored fighting vehicles, helicopters, fighter jets, ambulances, and so on.
With the history of military vehicles dating as far back as the late 1800s, the world has surely seen a plethora of these machines in various forms and shapes. Today, these machines are quite advanced in handling and very sophisticated in design hence we only marvel at their sight. However, going back in time we realized some military vehicles were as strange as they could be, and we’ve listed a few of them here.
15 BvS 10
The Land System Hagglunds of Sweden which is a subsidiary British BAE Systems built an All-Terrain Armored Vehicle called BvS 10 and aesthetically it’s one of the strangest Military vehicles we’ve seen around.
The BvS 10 is fully amphibious and distinctively has a twin-cab. The front cab can take five crew members which include the driver, while the rear cab can take up to eight crew members. It’s powered by a 5.9-liter turbocharged diesel engine.
14 Vespa 150 TAP
Yes, it’s a scooter. To be precise, it’s a 146 cc single-cylinder two-stroke engine powered Vespa scooter modified in the 1950s by the French into an anti-tank. Also called the Bazooka Vespa, the 150 TAP is mounted with a U.S.-made M20 75 mm recoilless rifle capable of penetrating 100 mm of armor.
Powered by a two-man team, the French paratroops used this weaponized-scooter to a devastating effect.
13 BigDog
BigDog was a 2005 military robot built by the collaboration of Boston Dynamics, Foster-Miller, and the Harvard University Concord Field Station. This dynamically stable quadruped robot was created solely with the aim of it helping soldiers carry their heavy gears in terrains too rough for wheels.
BigDog is 2.5 feet tall, 3 feet long, and weighs 240 pounds. However, the project was discontinued in 2015 as it was considered too noisy for combat.
12 VZ-9 Avrocar
Military parastatals all over the world often carry out secret projects in a bid to outwit their adversaries using the element of surprise – the Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar was one of such secret projects by the U.S. that commenced at the beginning of the Cold War.
The project aimed to build a high-speed fighting aircraft. However, it was canceled due to unresolved thrust and stability issues.
11 Tsar Tank
The Tsar Tank is considered to be the largest armored vehicle in history. Built by a team of Russian Military engineers, civilian engineers, and civilian scientists in 1914, Tsar Tank was constructed with a tricycle design featuring two huge front wheels and a small rear wheel each powered by a 250 hp Sunbeam engine.
The project later became known as a monumental example of engineering design failure and was abandoned at its test site.
10 ZiL-2906 Screw-Driven Vehicle
Cosmonauts often land in terrains that made their recovery difficult hence the Russians through the ZiL vehicle manufacturing company built the ZiL-2906 for their easy recovery. This screw-propelled vehicle is amphibious hence it can be driven on water, swamp, and snow. It has a maximum speed of 9.9 mph on water, 12 mph in the swamp, and 28 mph on snow.
9 Ekranoplan
The Ekranoplan is a ground effect vehicle that was in operation from 1987 to the late 1990s. Operated solely by the Soviet and Russian navies, the Ekranoplan uses its fixed wings to generate a lift at top speed on water due to a phenomenon called the ground effect.
Only two of these vehicles were ever built with the second Ekranoplan abandoned at 90% completion due to lack of funds.
8 Schwerer Gustav
While preparing for the Battle of France during the Second World War, the Germans knew they had to devise a means of breaking through the Maginot Line – a concrete fortification barrier and weapon installation constructed by the French – hence, they built the Schwerer Gustav.
The Gustav was an 80-centimeter German railway gun considered to be the biggest gun ever built. Schwerer Gustav was destroyed in 1945 to prevent U.S. troops from capturing it.
7 Progvev-T
The Progvev-T is a Soviet gas dynamic trawler built to sweep mines. The simple idea was to direct the heat coming from a jet engine towards a mine-filled land or area to disable the mines.
The Progvev-T weighs 37 tons making it quite a heavy vehicle while the MiG-15 engine powering it also required to be fueled heavily. These setbacks, coupled with the vehicle being too noisy for a stealth operation rendered the Progvev-T unfeasible.
6 Motor War Car
Motor War Car holds the record for being the first-ever armored vehicle that was built. F.R. Simms is credited with the design while it was built by Vickers. Today, this armored car is considered to be quite strange due to its unalluring aesthetics but it was the stuff legends back in the days because of the protection it affords its crew.
5 Antonov A-40 “Flying Tank”
The Soviet forces tried all that came to their mind in terms of battle weapon innovation. Antonov A-40 for its failure became a strange invention; otherwise, it could have been a game-changing combat vehicle if it fulfilled its aim of being a tank that glides into a battlefield from the sky. Only one unit of the Antonov A-40 was ever built as the project was abandoned for being impractical.
4 Motor Scout "Armored Quadricycle"
The Motor Scout was the world’s first armored petrol engine powered vehicle. It was designed and constructed by British innovator F.R. Simms in 1898. He achieved this by constructing a hold for a mark IV maxim machine gun just over the front wheels of the quadricycle. The quadricycle was powered by Simms’ one and half horsepower automatic petrol motor.
3 Beaverette
Beaverette was built for use by the British army during the Second World War. This British armored car was created simply by fitting a riveted armored hull on a commercial car chassis. A little space was carved in front of this armored hull solely for mounting a Bren light machine gun. Subsequent versions of this car were made till 1942 when its production ended.
2 Kugelpanzer
World War II saw the introduction and deployment of some of the most bizarre military vehicles and weapons to the battlefield and this spherical tank called the Kugelpanzer was one of them.
The Japanese Kwantung Army is documented to have used the Kugelpanzer, however, this one-man tank was built by the Germans. The Kugelpanzer was later captured in Manchuria by the Soviets.
1 Volkswagen Schwimmwagen
More like a swimming wagon, Volkswagen Schwimmwagen is an innovative masterpiece and shouldn’t be classed as strange. However, seeing that this is a vehicle that can be engine-driven on land while it’s also modified to be paddled on the water makes it an appropriate feature on this list.
Schwimmwagen was a massive success with the German army with over 14,000 units built between 1942 and 1944.