What Are The Deadliest Chemical Weapons Of All Time? | War Machines | Progress

foreign of the 20th century technology has developed exponentially along with Mankind's ability to kill on a devastating scale the Great War witnessed unspeakable horror as weaponized chemicals emerged from Factory assembly lines has the world sunk deeper into its second global conflict remote-controlled bombs rolled onto the battlefield sowing the seeds for the future of warfare splitting the atom both the nuclear age as Rocket engines evolved to deliver destruction to enemies across the globe in nuclear chemical robotic and remote these killing machines are the tools of ultimate annihilation [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] the weaponization of chemicals introduced the world to a more controversial type of warfare weapons unable to be heard and often unseen destroying their victims from the inside out denounced as war crimes chemical weapons are attempting Prospect for those determined to impose Agony upon their enemy the Great War was a conflict of brutal Innovation dragging the world into the 20th century the war of mechanization and killing technology wrought destruction on an unprecedented scale for the first time in history chemicals will be turned into weapons for widespread use leading historians to refer to it as the chemists War around 50 poisons were tried and tested but the two most widely produced were chlorine and phosgene in April 1915 Allied Forces struggled to hold the 16 kilometer line in Eep Western Belgium against a determined German army in the early evening of the 22nd a yellow green Cloud began drifting towards Allied trenches thought to be a smoke screen to cover advancing German infantry as the cloud dissented troops began choking the poisonous fumes destroying their lung tissue as Panic set in some ignored orders and ran unknowingly worsening the effects on their bodies as their eyes burned and mouths froth The increased breathing caused the toxic gas to saturate their respiratory systems the 168 tons of chlorine Unleashed by the Germans opened up a six kilometer Gap in the Allied line with asphyxia tissue damage and blindness attributing to 6 000 casualties too stunned by the success of their attack German troops failed to advance and the line was quickly closed by Allied reinforcements chlorine had initially been used on its own however covering the nose and mouth with a damp cloth considerably lessened the effects to beat these countermeasures Germans began mixing it with the denser and more potent phosgene responsible for around 85 percent of chemical weapons fatalities during the war fasting was a choking agent that caused victims to drown in their own bodily fluids the deadly chemical mix was quickly developed by both sides with artillery shells mortar projectiles and aerial bombs spreading the cocktail over enemy territory by the end of the war 124 000 tons of chemical agent had been used to terrify or neutralize enemy troops leading to 100 000 deaths at over one million casualties chemical warfare had arrived the Japanese capital of Tokyo a thriving Metropolis populated by over 13 million people home to one of the busiest Railway systems in the world during morning peak hour service on March 20 1995 a series of coordinated chemical attacks were launched on the Tokyo subway system using one of the most volatile nerve agents in existence saren formulated in 1938 Saran was discovered by German scientists creating pesticides while it was produced by the Nazi regime during World War II it was never used on Allied Forces in its purest form sarin is 26 times more deadly than cyanide a weapon of mass destruction a single drop can kill an adult on the morning of the Tokyo attacks members of the Doomsday cult Alm shinrichio released liters of sarin on several busy train lines as carriages pass through strategic stations cult members drop plastic bags filled with liquid sarin the bags were punctured with the sharpened tips of umbrellas releasing the liquid that eventually evaporated and spread even at low doses the colorless odorless liquid can kill within 10 minutes of exposure whilst paralyzing lung muscles and causing asphyxiation sarin causes nerves to fire constantly the victims convulse and fire at the mouth as their lungs secrete fluid during the Tokyo subway incident 12 people were killed and more than one thousand injured in one of the deadliest coordinated attacks since the close of World War II a waxy substance that bursts into flame when it comes into contact with the air its thick blackening Vapors can conceal infantry positions and firing locations Unleashed as a chemical weapon its intense heat Burns bodily tissue to the Bone had excessive exposure to its Thick Smoke can cause bones to disintegrate and organs to fail first used by the British Army in grenades in the early 20th century white phosphorus soon traveled across the Atlantic During the interwar period the U.S army began training its forces in the use of white phosphorus generating smoke screens to conceal advancing troops white phosphorus was soon developed into an offensive weapon self-igniting Molotov cocktail type grenades were lobbed at enemy tanks blinding the vehicle's Optics and forcing the crew to abandon their armored protection mortar batteries of phosphora shells were used to clear enemy positions as white phosphorus activates incandescent particles stick to whatever they strike nicely burning deep into the skin and clothing as long as the phosphorus has an oxygen supply in 1944 after the Allies successfully stormed the beaches of Normandy American troops rushed onwards to secure the port city of sherborg capture of the city would allow essential weapons and supplies to reach them in France the Battle of Sherborn raged for almost a month whilst American troops showered the German army with mortar rounds twenty percent of which were white phosphorus wreaking havoc among German troop concentrations and breaking up infantry attacks the white phosphorus mortars rained down on sherborg by the time schoborg was liberated on the 30th of June one single Battalion had fired 11 899 white phosphorus rounds into the city the spirit of Victory having Canada threw the landings into the cherberg peninsula will carry us on to Berlin itself offensive was a crushing blow to the Nazis resulting in the deaths of 8 000 German troops and the capture of thirty thousand more throughout the brutal Vietnam War U.S troops battled the invisible Vietcong who used thick jungle cover to conceal their positions in an attempt to expose the North Vietnamese the American Military resorted to chemical intervention for almost a decade fleets of cargo planes took to the sky saturating more than 5 million Acres of landscape was 75 million 700 000 liters of herbicides amongst the chemical cocktails was the notorious Agent Orange claiming that agent orange was purely a defoliant and harmless to humans the U.S government directed the decimation of 500 000 Acres of crops and three Thousand Villages across Southern Vietnam Cambodia and Laos but the herbicide was far from safe containing tcdd a chemical described as the most toxic molecule ever synthesized by man agent orange was responsible for a myriad of cancers skin disorders nerve damage and birth defects in humans tcdd takes up to 20 years to break down while in infected soil or waterways it can have a half-life of more than a hundred years more than four decades after the war ended the side effects of Agent Orange are still being felt as many as 3 million Vietnamese people are still suffering side effects as are millions of veterans and their families in 2004 a Vietnamese Citizen's victims rights group fired a class action lawsuit against 30 manufacturers of Agent Orange claiming it violated international law the courts ruled that agent orange was not intended for use on humans and ultimately it was ruled not to be a chemical weapon in 1935 a border dispute in European dominated Africa would lead Mussolini to launch the second italio Ethiopian war when an Italian pilot was captured and killed by Ethiopian troops stories of his torture prompted Mussolini to authorize retaliation dropping toxic gas causing over 100 000 casualties developed by the Imperial German Army in World War One the toxic cocktail of carbon sulfur chlorine and hydrogen was called mustard gas for its yellow color and mustard like odor while mustard gas had little immediate effect on its victims within 24 hours It produced chemical burns subjecting victims to excruciating blistering of the skin eyes and lungs the toxin liquefied tissue and killed mucous membranes leading to painful pus-filled blisters respiratory failure and temporary or even permanent blindness [Music] when more than 50 percent of a victim's skin had been burned mustard gas attacks could be fatal initiating a slow and agonizing death that occurred weeks after exposure as World War II loomed on the horizon and the Carnegie in Ethiopia still in the minds of Britain's the country lived in fear of gases dropped during airaids gas masks went into production for the entire population exposed at this country to the most severe severe gas masks free and available to meet any emergency at the outbreak of the war 38 million masks were distributed in a door-to-door program when the wearer of a gas mask breathed in air would pass through a cloth filter containing disinfectant and charcoal the activated charcoal would bond with the gas and stop it from passing through requiring the filter to be changed before the mask was used again gas masks became a common sight throughout England because you never know where you'll need it now the dance hall in stutter and it's on with the gas mask and the Ducks thankfully no gas attacks on Britain eventuated and the masks were never called into action in 1993 the United Nations adopted the chemical weapons convention a tree Banning the use of mustard gas and other chemical agents in Warfare robotic and remote The View to a Kill has advanced from the scope of a gun to a computer monitor kilometers away removing the soldier from danger a new age of weapons has slowly Arisen remote control defense has evolved into autonomous offense as the next generation of killing machines wield increasingly destructive power [Music] technological advances in the 21st century have seen unmanned BattleBots performing dangerous and deadly activities entering booby trap layers locating IEDs or scouting combat zones they can go where the Flesh and Blood Soldier cannot foreign [Music] disposal the Foster Miller Talon family was first deployed in 2000. within its first four years it had undertaken over twenty thousand separate missions to military robots in sensors that detect the environment and can be programmed to automatically respond to their situation or wirelessly controlled by train troops it's highly mobile robots can Traverse nearly any terrain to eliminate threats [Music] as a defensive tool these military robots have evolved for battle deployment capable of lethal Force array of deadly weapons including machine guns grenade and rocket launchers they've paved the way for a new generation of Killer Robots wielding even heavier Firepower the multi-purpose unmanned tactical transport named mutt for short this Force multiplier places heavy weapon systems once reserved for armored Cavalry into the hands of Infantry a single mutt can be equipped with an m240 or m2.50 caliber machine gun a weapon that would normally require a team of five troops to carry when traveling on Force a remote Weapon Station enables a gunner to operate much machine gun from any position of safety station provides 360 degrees of coverage as well as stabilizers the keeper gun level whilst traveling on any Terrain the integration of heavy tactical robots within platoons will provide Soldiers with unprecedented Firepower and protection on the 21st century Battlefield in late 1940 the Nazi rehmarkt recovered the Prototype of the miniature French track vehicle harnessing its potential to deliver High explosives they produce the world's first robotic Soldier the Goliath tracked mine the forebeer of modern military robotics Goliath was a remote controlled tracked bomb measuring less than a meter wide its resemblance to a miniature tank earned at the nickname Beetle tag from the Allies about half a mile of cable is connected to the tank by which the operator guides it to the Target and fires the explosive the vehicle's cable was Triple strand two cables were used to move and steer Goliath while the third was used to detonate its explosive cargo destroying tanks buildings Bridges and scattering dense infantry formations the German engineered demolition vehicle could remotely deliver up to 100 kilograms of high explosives gonna try next first used in 1942 more than 7500 were deployed throughout the war's final years however they could often be rendered inoperative when artillery blasts severed their command cables due to its high production cost and disposable nature it wasn't considered a great wartime success however the Goliath was instrumental in laying the foundation for post-war military robotics in a new age of War Insurgent surveyed opposing military forces by concealing themselves in remote Mountain areas or crowded Urban centers with these locations beyond the reach of many surveillance or weapons capabilities new Battlefield Heroes have risen flying autonomously or via remote control these Airborne robots gather intelligence and conduct strikes without risking the lives of Pilots commonly known as drones uavs have become essential weapons in counter-terrorism operations the US government has stated that 70 of all Al-Qaeda operatives were captured due to the work of uavs aerial drone technology had a slow beginning during the second world war but throughout the 50s and 60s pilotless aircraft became increasingly used for Battlefield reconnaissance able to stay aloft for up to an hour the British royal artillerys Falconer would carry a camera over enemy territory before deploying a shoot so the film could be recovered as the jet fighter came to maturity retired aircraft could be retrofitted with remote flying apparatus for live weapons training [Music] since 1998 the rq4 global hawk has functioned as an eye in the sky for the U.S Air Force operating at high altitudes Global Hawks can survey up to 100 000 square kilometers of terrain daily first deployed in Afghanistan the jet-powered global hawk is purely a surveillance tool tracking the movement of insurgence and providing real-time imagery it enables Air Force commanders to act on real-time data informing the precise targeting of lethal weapons with the ability to take off fly and touch down autonomously the global hawk holds world records for endurance and distance decade after the global hawk took to the skies the MQ-9 Reaper became the first long-range UAB capable of conducting a deadly strike in 5 or 14 hours fully loaded with 900 kilograms of Munitions that include air-to-ground missiles infrared honing Sidewinders and GPS guided smart bombs operators stationed on the ground hunt for targets using multiple sensors including an infrared camera for night missions a real-time satellite link allows the operator's command to reach the Drone in just 1.2 seconds while effective in war zones where ground targets lack the fire to shoot them down reapers are not designed to withstand anti-aircraft defenses or engage in air-to-air combat the role of uavs will continue to increase as well-equipped forces seek to remove soldiers from Frontline Danger during World War II the Nazi war machine was devastating the allies with constant Air Raids and new boat attacks hidden in bomb resistant fortifications the layers of these killing machines were heavily protected by anti-aircraft Weaponry preventing piloted bombers from approaching in 1943 in an Innovative attempt to suppress these threats the U.S developed a remote guided super bomb [Music] operation Aphrodite was a secret program converting obsolete B-17 Flying fortresses into remote controlled killer drones these obsolete aircraft have been modified for use of guided missiles usable against either area or pinpoint targets stripped of all non-essential parts War weary bombers were outfitted with radio remote control equipment [Music] targeting reinforced strategic sites such as U-Boat pins and missile launch pads the B-17 Aphrodite missiles were filled with torpex a torpedo explosive 50 more powerful than TNT weighing more than double this standard payload a volunteer pilot and flight engineer took the drones up to 600 meters before transferring control to an accompanying Mothership using cameras viewing both the ground and the main instrumentation panel the remote Pilots could navigate after successfully turning over drone control the two-man crew would arm the payload and parachute out of the cockpit the mothership would then direct the missile to the Target this missile can be classified as a super suicide attack plane without the expanded zero personnel remotely control missile is good for pinpoint accuracy lost an Innovative effort the control and detonation systems were often prone to failure the radio navigation aboard half of the Aphrodite drones faltered and the program was closed before the end of the war this aerial robot can penetrate enemy airspace Gathering essential intelligence for forward missions when faced with an enemy threat it has the lethal capability to launch an autonomous attack Northrop grumman's experimental X-47B the future of Naval Aviation the X-47B can undertake semi-autonomous surveillance and strike missions before returning to base the first ever partless aircraft to take off and land from a carrier development is underway to turn the Prototype into a battlefield ready aircraft robot speeds through the skies at Mark 0.9 an evolution of the B2 bomber its shape makes it the stealthiest unmanned aircraft in history in April 2015 the X-47B completed an autonomous aerial refueling free of restrictions such as pilot fatigue or limited fuel this next-gen UAV has unprecedented operational reach built for 21st century combat the X-47B is the future of air power an unmanned killing machines on the 6th of August 1945 a B-29 super Fortress dropped an untested uranium bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima for the first time in history nuclear weapons had been Unleashed on a population the device was blowsing force equal to 14 500 tons of TNT decimated 90 of the city more than 129 000 people were killed in the blast most of them civilians demanding Japan's total surrender American President Truman issued a horrific ultimatum if they do not now accept our terms they may expect a reign of Ruin from the air the like of which has never been seen on this Earth a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki and less than a month later Japan surrendered the world was blasted into the age of nuclear warfare an age haunted with the threat of ultimate annihilation after German scientists split the atom in 1938 physicists across the globe immediately realized the potential of weaponizing the nuclear fission process in Adolf Hitler's thirst for world domination he became fixated with harnessing this new technology establishing the German nuclear weapon project clandestine research program to develop the atomic bomb so terrifying was the thought of Germany possessing a weapon of such magnitude Albert Einstein signed a letter to the president of the United States warning of the potential horror banding together in secrecy with her allies the U.S entered the race to harness the power of the atom creating the first fission bomb hidden deep in the New Mexico desert the Manhattan Project brought together some of the most Brilliant Minds from across the globe many of the scientists working on the project had fled Germany in the decade prior Jews had been persecuted under the Nazi regime all too aware of the consequences of failing to beat Hitler to nuclear weaponry scientists and Engineers worked furiously to produce a nuclear fission bomb the initial 1938 Discovery revealed that breaking the nucleus of uranium-235 into two parts produced 200 million times the energy of the neutron used to trigger it at the time the Manhattan Project was the world's largest industrial Enterprise this was a hidden American mainstream center of a thriving community population 78 000 that never appeared on any map in 1945 after three years of research into Atomic technology the Manhattan Project produced an implosion designed plutonium device nicknamed the gadget no one had ever attempted to detonate an atomic bomb before and if it was successful no one knew just how much destructive energy would be released the gadget was set for detonation in the hornado Del muerto desert under the code name Trinity smoke Clouds Rose to 40 000 feet will this power are now available to men bring another even more suicidal War upon us with a force exceeding 20 000 tons of TNT Trinity's heat turned the desert sand into glass the successful explosion changed the world forever thrusting it into the atomic age foreign 1946 a fleet of more than 90 warships and submarines gathered off the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean the ghostly Fleet had no captains and no crew each vessel would serve the nation one last time in a test to further Atomic knowledge under operation Crossroads the nuclear bombs Unleashed on Japan catapulted the world into a new era of warfare determined to assess their fleet's resilience in the atomic age the U.S Navy put itself to the test Wayne Chiefs and staff had charged the Army Navy task force with the responsibility of determining how a tonic blasts will affect the structural design of ships the reaction of aircraft and Military ground equipment to these forces to ascertain the effect of an atomic bomb exploding near the ocean's surface and deep beneath it the vessels were assembled at varying distances around the coral atoll some loaded with live animals to study the effects of the blast and radioactive fallout on living creatures in addition to the guinea pig Fleet 150 other ships provided workstations and living quarters for the 42 000 people who participated in the tests the first device was an airdropped plutonium implosion type nuclear bomb similar to the one dropped on Nagasaki Mission Crossroads has begun unloaded from the B-29 super Fortress the bond detonated 158 meters above the target Fleet with a yield of 23 kilotons the world's fourth atom bomb missed its aim Point by 649 meters and the blast was far less devastating than anticipated following the disappointing results of the first shot a second bomb was detonated 27 meters under the water the atomic mushroom is a giant water spot water is pouring back in a stupendous Deluge into the Lagoon a radioactive swirl about to overwhelm the ships at anchor the radioactive spray caused extensive contamination and operation Crossroads was terminated because of radiation concerns however the U.S continued to test nuclear weapons at Bikini Atoll for over a decade at the outset of the 1950s the Cold War arms race reached fever pitch with the powers behind the Iron Curtain racing to harness nuclear technology after the Soviet Union conducted a test detonation of their first fission bomb President Truman fired back ing that the United States would Advanced beyond the nuclear age and developed the world's first thermonuclear device in November 1949 a letter between President Truman and the chairman of the atomic energy commission confirmed America's resolution to pursue thermonuclear power arming America against any possible enemy in contrast to fission thermonuclear Fusion is the combination of two or more light atoms into a larger one at extremely high temperatures the energy released by Fusion is three to four times greater than the energy released by fission by 1952 the U.S government was ready to conduct Operation Ivy in the Pacific Marshall Islands an enormous 73-ton structure had been constructed for the test detonation of the first ever full thermonuclear device more powerful than any device before the bomb was co-named Mike on the 1st of November the world shook with the greatest explosion ever Unleashed by mankind this is the largest Fireball ever produced the tremendous upsurge of air from the detonation rapidly pushes up the mic Cloud again nothing of this height and width has ever before been witnessed equal to 10.4 million tons of TNT Mike's blast was 800 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima the mushroom cloud Rose 50 kilometers into the stratosphere and stretched out to 161 kilometers Mike's Fury obliterated the entire island of Illusion lab leaving an enormous Crater where the island had once been the world's inauguration into the thermonuclear age meant mutually assured destruction was now a real and present danger pilotless flying bombs can seek and destroy the enemy from any corner of the Earth for the last century missile and Rocket technology has been pursued with an art and fervor by Powers around the globe once only capable of relatively short ranges missiles would breach space and bring the world closer than it has ever come to Ultimate annihilation as the Soviet Union came even closer to achieving nuclear power defending the skies against long-range bombers became a United States priority a new weapon was needed to strike down Airborne threats resulting in the world's first operational surface-to-air missile the Nike Ajax the Advent of the jet age meant aircraft could fly faster further and higher than ever conventional anti-aircraft weapons were no match in 1945 the U.S army initiated project Nike a top-secret air defense program to detect and counteract Airborne threats [Music] 250 missile sites were established Across America all housing radar and computer tracking systems accompanying launch areas stockpiled missiles in heavily fortified silos these pictures which have just been released by the United States defense department revealed for the first time America's latest guided missile launching station project until recently top secret involves radar Rockets 20 feet in length mounted directly onto launching frames ready for instant firing the program's first missile Nike Ajax could reach a maximum altitude of 21 kilometers with a relatively short range of only 40. to supply a net of cover bases were located close to areas of strategic importance as Jets conquered the sound barrier and ballistic missiles became more prominent the ajax's shorecommings became apparent July of 1958 heralded the arrival of the Nike Hercules carrying both conventional and nuclear warheads Hercules could intercept these new perils far superior to its predecessor Hercules could travel at speeds of Mark 3.6 to strike targets 46 kilometers in the air up to 140 away the Hercules missile could also be used in surface-to-surface mode to destroy land-based targets typically armed with a w-31 nuclear warhead these deadly deterrents had a 20 kiloton explosive force what had begun as an air defense program had evolved into a weapon capable of delivering an offensive strike as World War II came to a close the world's superpowers Drew back into the opposing corners with both the Soviet Union and the United States determined to reign supreme nuclear weaponry became the ultimate symbol of power in order to launch defensive strikes against a Soviet attack the U.S began placing nuclear missiles strategically throughout Europe arriving in Turkey in 1959 under the guise of commitment to Turkish Defense were the Jupiter medium-range ballistic missiles tension would initiate a chain of events that would bring the world to the brink of annihilation the 15 Jupiter missiles scattered across five Turkish sites could travel 2400 kilometers and deliver a nuclear blow to the Soviet Union tipped with a 1.4 Megaton thermonuclear Warhead each Jupiter could reach its Target in under 17 minutes on October 14 1962 a U.S military U2 plane flying a reconnaissance mission over Cuba made a startling Discovery the Soviets had begun stockpiling their own nuclear Arsenal within Striking Distance of America Russian missile bases less than 100 miles from the United States which threatens World Peace equipped with their own medium-range missiles Cuba a staunch Soviet Ally now served as a launch point for strikes against the U.S [Music] launch from Cuba against Any Nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union despite having their own Jupiter missiles in Turkey President Kennedy viewed the Cuban stockpile as a direct threat to World Peace as the superpowers faced off against one another both leaders face the prospect of initiating nuclear war on the 22nd of October 1962 President Kennedy launched a naval blockade of Cuba and called on the Soviet president Nikita Khrushchev to withdraw all nuclear weapons as the world watched in fear 25 Soviet ships armed with further missiles and military equipment steamed towards Cuba in response America initiated the fastest mobilization of U.S military forces in history whilst the Strategic Air Command was ordered to Defcon 2 ready to engage in nuclear war on October 24th as the world stood on the brink of annihilation the Serbia cargo ships began reversing course during secret negotiations Kennedy and Khrushchev came to an agreement the Soviets would remove all missiles from Cuba while the U.S promised never to invade the island and secretly removed the pgm-19 Jupiter missiles from Turkey the 13 days of tension came to a close as the world breathed the siled relief on the 13th of June 1944 one week after the Allied Landings in Normandy London was subjected to a terrifying Nazi retaliation reigning horror from the sky a new weapon had arrived the B-1 flying bomb the the girl tongue swatha one German for Revenge bomb was the world's first cruise missile due to its distinctive buzzing sound the Allies called it The Doodlebug the signature noise was produced by the v1's Pulse Jet Engine the very first employed on a production aircraft a series of shutters at the front of the engine ingested air whilst drawing in a spray of high octane gasoline the mixture was then ignited causing a buildup of pressure that forced the shutters closed the jet exhaust was then funneled at the tailpipe thrusting the missile forward as the pressure dropped the shutters would open and the process would repeat cycling 50 times per second Guided by an internal gyro compass and steered by a Rudders when the V1 reached its Target the engine would stop and the V1 dropped in ominous silence [Music] simple and cheap to produce England's Southeast was subject to more than 100 a day in less than a year Doodlebugs would claim the lives of 6 000 people wounding three times that again the b1s however were not infallible their signature noise alerted anti-aircraft batteries and their relatively slow speeds could be matched by British Fighters fighter a drama entitled the death of the doodlebag foreign by August 1944 80 of the ones were being destroyed before reaching their targets of the 9521 Doodlebugs fired at England only 2 500 reached London but the Nazis had even more Vengeance weapons in store and remained determined to punish Britain with every strike a mere three months after unleashing the V1 Revenge bomb the Vermont would strike with a deadlier missile they would call retribution impervious to Allied countermeasures falling at supersonic speeds in a steep trajectory the V2 rocket could not be stopped in 1927 the German amateur Society for space travel was already exploring the potential of liquid fuel to propel Rockets into space when the national socialists came to power in 1933 the rocket was instantly recognized as a weapon full of destructive possibilities Society member Werner Von Braun was adopted into the Nazi fold and work began leading to the world's first long-range ballistic missile launching in 1944 the V2 traveled at three times the speed of sound climbing to an altitude of 176 kilometers it blasted out of the Earth's atmosphere for the first time the boundary of space had been conquered not in the name of exploration but weapons innovation for eight months the German beermark battered the Allied Forces with over 3 000 V2 missiles killing 9 000 civilians in military personnel [Music] this brutal weapon not only claimed the lives of those that struck it was also responsible for the deaths of as many as 12 000 concentration camp prisoners who were beaten or starved to death while working to produce the bombs in 1945 as Germany collapsed vener Von Braun and his team surrendered to the Americans and were resettled under Operation Paperclip along with their new citizens America brought back captured B-2 missiles and the new long-range Proving Grounds in Florida they've been experimenting with the German V2 which carries a smaller missile on its nose accidentally this is believed to be the first successful horizontal flight by long-range guided missile technology would prove not only to U.S missile development but to America's journey to space October 4th 1957 the world listened in Wonder as the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1 launched into Earth's orbit public perception of the United States as the world's technological superpower was shattered desperate not to fall behind in the Cold War arms race America surged ahead with missile development creating a revolution in Military and Aerospace technology named for the mythical Greek god of endurance and astronomy the Strategic missile 65 Atlas was America's first intercontinental ballistic missile after World War II U.S military technology was bolstered by the arrival of some 1500 German scientists engineers and technicians each with expertise in different aspects of weapons technology Operation Paperclip was an enormous success for the United States resulting in the creation of the Redstone family of rockets which included the first short-range missile to carry live nuclear ammunition Desiring a long-range missile development of Atlas began in 1946 over 10 years later Atlas had become the largest military development program in America's history and in 1958 the first successful test flight was launched at Cape Canaveral an Atlas missile blasting off to become the biggest man-made Earth satellite so far payload and carrier together weigh nearly four and a half tons carrying a thermonuclear Warhead over 100 times more powerful than the bomb dropped over Nagasaki atlas's role as a weapon of War lasted only six years however the technology behind Atlas would evolve into one of the world's most significant satellite launch vehicles joining the space race in 1962 Atlas became part of project Mercury the United States first human space flight program on the 20th of February Atlas launched friendship seven a spacecraft carrying Astronaut John Glenn [Music] Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth circling an additional two times [Music] by the end of its military service in 1965 Atlas had carried four project Mercury astronauts into orbit placing the US on equal footing with the Soviets in the Cold War space race [Music] the United States only land-based nuclear weapons these intercontinental ballistic missiles have served as strategic deterrence for over half a century delivering a 170 kiloton thermonuclear Warhead the Minuteman missile can be launched in just 60 Seconds initiated in the early 1960s the Minuteman concept was revolutionary providing the US with quick reacting missiles that could strike targets almost 10 000 kilometers away launched from remote fortified Silas the Minuteman massage were the first to be stored beneath the earth's surface to protect them from enemy attack Minuteman 3 was the first missile to contain several Warheads each one capable of being independently aimed at its own specified Target the Earth's atmosphere the minuteman's final stage fires three re-entry Vehicles each capable of carrying a nuclear warhead hurtling toward Earth they are armed in Flight before each strikes an independent Target [Music] 415 Minute Men missiles are currently positioned across three bases in the United States ready to launch after receiving a coded and authenticated message from The Office of the President [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause]

Channel: Progress - Technology History Documentaries

Views: 37,222

Keywords: Progress, Documentary, Technology, Science, History, Full Documentary, world war 1, chemical weapons, chemical warfare, ww2, white phosphorous, mustard gas

Id: Y8JZNp_n8zI

Length: 50min 17sec (3017 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 21 2023