The Strange Arsenal: Built, Tested and Fielded

During the Second World War and the early Cold War, Western and Axis militaries funded a series of weapons that look implausible today. US researchers tested a bat bomb designed to release more than 1,000 Mexican free-tailed bats carrying timed incendiaries over Japanese cities. Psychologist B.F. Skinner built a prototype nose cone in which trained pigeons would peck at a target image to steer a munition. The US Army actually issued the Davy Crockett recoilless weapon, which could launch a small nuclear projectile.

Other designs moved beyond paper. Britain's Great Panjandrum, a rocket-propelled wheeled demolition device, repeatedly veered off course during 1943–44 testing. Germany's Krummlauf curved-barrel attachment and Windkanone anti-aircraft wind cannon were built and tested but achieved little combat success. The Goliath remote-controlled demolition vehicle was produced in the thousands and saw use, though its control cables and low ground clearance limited it.

A separate cluster of programs put nuclear weapons into tactical or unguided roles. The M65 Atomic Annie cannon fired a live atomic shell once in 1953; the AIR-2 Genie was an unguided nuclear air-to-air rocket test-detonated in 1957; and Atomic Demolition Munitions gave Army engineers portable nuclear charges for destroying infrastructure. None of these tactical nuclear devices was used in combat.

The record also includes oddities that proved useful in a niche. The Marine Corps' M50 Ontos carried six 106mm recoilless rifles and was used in Vietnam, while Britain's Sticky Bomb, an anti-tank grenade meant to be physically stuck onto enemy armor, was produced in the millions despite the obvious hazard.

Why Most Experimental Weapons Never Left Testing

Most Experimental Weapons Never Reached Combat

The status labels are telling. The bat bomb, Project Pigeon, Great Panjandrum, Krummlauf, Windkanone and Little David were built or tested but never fielded. In several cases the failure was technical: the Panjandrum veered off course and shed rockets, while pressure in the curved barrel damaged the Krummlauf or shattered bullets. In others, the military lost confidence or the war ended first, as with Project Pigeon and the Little David mortar.

Tactical Nuclear Systems Were Fielded for Deterrence, Not Use

A separate pattern is the spread of nuclear weapons into infantry and battlefield roles. The Davy Crockett sat in Army inventories from 1961 to 1971 and was deployed overseas, Atomic Annie fired one live shell in 1953, and the AIR-2 Genie remained in the Air Force inventory for decades. None detonated in combat. These programs mattered less for operational efficiency than for signalling that battlefield nuclear use was being actively prepared for.

What Made the Goliath, Sticky Bomb and Ontos Different

The fielded outliers shared a practical niche. The Goliath and the Sticky Bomb addressed immediate wartime problems — demolitions and anti-tank defense after the Dunkirk evacuation — despite severe limitations. The M50 Ontos succeeded once Marines stopped using it as a pure anti-tank vehicle and instead fired its six recoilless rifles against bunkers and fortified positions in Vietnam. The lesson is not that strange designs are inherently good, but that operational adaptation can rescue a platform when its original concept is unrealistic.