Hi Guys,
I'm working on an article idea at the moment, premise being real weapons used in war that were so unfairly ahead of their time or well-engineered that they could be comically considered 'cheating'. I was wondering if you all had any examples you could throw out. I have one right now that when I first came across it seemed like fiction.
The Paris Gun- First used in 1918, the Paris Gun was so known for being able to shoot from German encampments at the edge of France into the city of Paris. With a barrel 36 meters in length, the Paris gun could elevate a round over 40km in altitude with a lateral travel distance of around 120 km (75 mi)! It was thus the first artillery piece to send its projectiles onto enemy targets from the stratosphere. The gun was intended as a psychological weapon, for its unprecedented range made it so that when Parisians were first fired upon they believed they were being bombed by unseen zeppelins. The gun was responsible for killing 250 people and wounding 620.
I'm also considering using the XM25 CDTE, which is an airburst rifle currently being shopped by the US army. The gun's built-in laser range finder and the adjustable detonation distance of its projectiles essentially make cover negligible. I've played around with it in an simulator and it is frightening.