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The Turtle submarine
The first military submarine, the Turtle was used by the Americans in an attempt to break the naval blockade on them at the time leading up to the revolution. It was very difficult to use and proved impractical. Many other types of submarines were developed during the time of American Civil War but they also proved ineffective often resulting in the death of their operators. -
Period: to
Advancements in military technology in the United States from 1775 to Present
A timeline of all the major technological advances made in worldwide militaries and warfare. -
Interchangeable Parts
Eli Whitney's interchangeable parts allowed for guns to be easily made and assembled; he standardized the production of firearms for a time. This meant that guns wouldn't have to be completely discarded if they broke, one would just have to simply order the new part. -
The Telegraph
There were many different versions of the telegraph before it was realized in America by Samuel F. B. Morse. Morse's telegraph revolutionized the speed of communication in the most important field, the battlefield. During the Civil War, president Lincoln could communicate real time orders to his generals in the field where as the Confederates couldn't. -
Minie Ball bullets
Invented by Frenchman Claude-Étienne Minié, these new conical bullets were much more effective than musket balls. The cone shape made them much more accurate and the grooves on the side were intended to engage the rifling inside the barrel to produce a spin, rendering the bullet even more accurate. Coupled with new and improved rifles and magazines, these bullets were lethal. -
Sharps Rifle
American Christian Sharps invents the Sharps Rifle. It is one of the first rifles to utilize a breach-loading mechanism which allowed for much faster reloading than the musket. Additionally, the rifle was also much more accurate and saw use in the American Civil war by sharpshooters. -
Repeater Rifle
Repeater Rifles were a huge advance over Sharps' rifles in that they could be reloaded faster, fired more rounds per minute, and were just as accurate. There are many differetn types of repeater rifles but one of the most famous repeaters, Henry's Repeater rifles used a magazine to feed bullets. -
Ironclad warships
Overseas Britain and France were just beginning to fight each other with ships with iron hulls. At the start of the Civil War the Union and Confederacy adopted these new ships. They proved highly effective against wooden hulled ships and thus rendered them obsolete -
Automatic guns
With the inventions of the first automatic guns like the gatling and maxim guns, warfare forever changed. These guns could fire hundreds of rounds/minute. Charges towards the enemy would be met with a hail of bullets, resulting in hundreds of deaths in seconds. They would often be set up along the trenches of WW1 to ensure a difficult advance of enemy troops. -
Motor engines
With Karl Benz's invention of a self-powered engine came the invention of the first automobiles. These led to the rise of vehicles such as the Model T in America. Soon, more powerful engines were developed to power heavier vehicles that could be plated with armor and could be used as troop transports or carry mounted guns. -
First powered flight - Wright Brothers
Although the first planes were very fragile and used primarily as scout planes, airplanes would evolved into one of the most fearsome and useful weapons in tactical warfare. Over the course of history, planes became faster, tougher, and more deadly. They attached mounted guns and equiped them with cargo bays to deliver a payload of bombs to a desired target. -
German U-boats
While submarines had been impractical in the past, the Germans turned them into deadly and undetectable war machines. Although comparatively small to the Allied battleships, the u-boats could sink any ship the Allies possesed with torpedoes while remaining hidden. -
Observation Balloons
First used by the French in the 1790's, they were adopted for use on both sides of the American Civil war. Balloons provided valuable tactical information that could be relayed via telegraph. Observation balloons were used heavily during World War 1. -
Chemical Warfare - Gas
Another deadly addition to warfare was gas, more specifically deadly chemicals in the form of gas. Both the Allies and Central powers employed the use of various chemicals. They ranged in lethality but some of them were very deadly, causing severe internal and external burns. They were perfect for slow-moving trench warfare but most gases weren't deadly. Counter-measures like gas masks sprung up. Luckily, America only experienced the end of gas attacks in the end of World War 1. -
Renault FT - Tank
Again revolutionizing warfare during World War 1 was the invention of tanks. Heavily armored heavy motor-driven vehicles with a high-caliber main gun and machine guns, these machines were meant to speed up the painfully slowness of trench warfare. All of the major countries involved in the war produced their own versions of tanks but the French Renault FT proved to be the most effective and is still used as a model today. -
Invention of Radar
The invention of radar by the British was to counter the air raids and forewarn against imcoming German aerial assaults. This greatly limited effectiveness of airstrikes because radar allowed for the other side to prepare and counterattack. It lead to the development of stealth airplane technology. -
Howitzer cannons
Although cannons had been in use by the worlds' armies for hundreds of years, in the 20th century, they became much larger. Termed 'howitzers', these huge cannons could fire many miles at a high trajectory and were used to bombard the enemy side of trench warfare. They also were installed onto railcars and ships. -
B-29 Bomber Aircraft
Airplanes could also be heavy, high-altitude, and huge payload. With the introduction of pressurized cabins, airplanes could now fly higher and thus be harder to hit. This enabled them to fly into enemy territory and drop hundreds of bombs. The B-29 Superfortress carried out the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WW2. -
First Nuclear Weapons used
The United States unveils the most destructive weapons to date in history on Japan; the first nuclear bombs -Little Boy and Fat Man- were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The very first bombs of their kind to be used in a war, they resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians. -
From propellers to jets
Propeller airplanes were limited in that the propellers could not exceed supersonic speed. This would result in no lift being generated and thus the plane would drop. This meant that as engines grew more powerful, they couldn't be used because the propeller speeds would be too high. To counter this, the Germans in WW2 invented jet engines to produce more thrust and fly far faster than any Allied propeller craft. In 1946 the Bell X-1 became the first airplane to excede the sound barrier. -
Stealth Airplanes
With the inventions of radar, airplanes were a lot easier to detect and therefore counter against. Experiments with covering airplanes with stealth foils and round all the edges to make it more difficult for radar to detect began. Airplanes with this type of stealth technology include the B-2 Spirit(bomber) and F-22 Raptor(fighter). -
HULC - Robot Exoskeletons
The newly developed Human Universal Load Carrier - HULC - enhances soldier's battlefield capability by allowing them to carry more weight, up to 200 pounds, on a robotic exoskeleton rather than their own backs. Powered by power cells, they can operate for days at a time. This enables soldiers to go on longer missions while carrying all their necessary gear.
