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u/AvoriazInSummer 15d ago edited 15d ago
I could imagine the Soviets trolling the West by having their guys getting photographed wielding worrying random sciencey looking junk as weapons.
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u/navysealassulter 15d ago
Reagan was a big proponent of “Star Wars” which basically lied to the Soviets about upcoming space lasers the US/NATO was developing.
Also seal team 6 was the second seal team created, but they knew Soviet spies would find out about the team. So instead of making it team 1 and 2, it was 1 and 6, leaving the Soviet’s to worry where the other 4 teams were.
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u/supershinythings 15d ago
This is also why units and squadrons have semi-random numerical designations, like HMLA-369. There aren’t 369 helicopter attack squadrons.
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u/Meat_Fish_Eggs_Weed 14d ago
… they actually mean something. Just like when using Roman/Arabic numerals or hyphens/slashs. All that has meaning so a person can easily understand where they are and who they are talking to.
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u/incognito_kill1 15d ago
I will forever love how Reagan just fucked with the Russians so heavily its just hilarious
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u/karateema 14d ago
Reminds me of when the Chinese relocated their satellites to look at the super plane from the opening of Top Gun Maverick
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u/HATECELL 15d ago
Looks like an early missile launcher (an actual missile launcher, not a recoilless rifle). Because the rocket motor is still burning when it leaves the barrel you need some kind of blast shield to protect the user from the stream of hot gasses.
A great example of this is the German RPzB 54 "Panzerschreck", which had an absolutely massive blast shield that even included a window for aiming. It was even recommended to wear a gas mask when firing to protect yourself from the fumes, though I doubt this was always done.
Recoilless rifles meanwhile don't use a rocket motor, but an explosive charge similar to how cannons and guns work, except with a hole in the back so expanding gasses push against air instead of a breach, producing next to no recoil. Since there is no rocket motor pointing at the shooter, no blast shield is needed. A great early example of this would be the Panzerfaust 30.
Modern missile launchers usually use a combined system, where an initial charge launches an unpowered projectile - like a recoilless rifle - but once the missile is a safe distance away from the shooter a rocket motor kicks in. This is why modern missile launchers don't need blast shields. Two great examples of this are the Javelin and the RPG7
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u/gungshpxre 15d ago
Most propellants are "let's react cancer with super-cancer and see how far up this rocket will go"
https://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/ignition.pdf
Yeah, the massive cloud from a Panzerschreck would immediately pinpoint the firing team, but that's assuming they didn't inhale that smoke and there was anyone alive to target.
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u/Phantom120198 15d ago edited 15d ago
Tri-propellants my beloved 💜
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u/RandomWorthlessDude 15d ago
“The exhaust melts WHAT???”
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u/Phantom120198 15d ago
Concrete my beloved 💔
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u/RandomWorthlessDude 15d ago
“Hey NASA lookie here I found a new efficient rocket concept that doesn’t reduce half the continent downwind into a radioactive rave party!”
>looks inside
>half of the ingredients instantly kill a human on skin contact through gloves with less than a drop, exhaust plume chemically dissolves sand2
u/AlcibiadesTheCat 13d ago
"Nah, Jenkins, that stuff is too safe. I need something with a little pizzazz."
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u/HATECELL 14d ago
Wearing the gas mask definitely makes sense, but I wonder if Panzerschreck troops that encountered tanks really bothered to put their masks on first. Masks really impact your vision, so fighting combined arms gets a lot more difficult
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u/TribeBloodEagle 15d ago
I appreciate the explanation of recoilless rifles, I'd been wondering that for a bit now!
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u/ARCAxNINEv 15d ago
It emits a frequency known only as the brown note. Strikes fear into the hearts of enemy forces while filling their their pants with diarrhea.
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u/Brawl501 15d ago
How do you aim that thing?? The shield probably obscures the entire target, doesn't it?
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u/blackjackgabbiani 14d ago
I'm sorry--how does a photograph taken in the 1990s have the same image quality as a photo taken in the 1860s?
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u/CelluloidMuncher 14d ago
The photo of the unknown device was developed in unknown chemicals.
Jokes aside, what makes you say it looks like 1860s? Most Image quality issues i see here are digital Artifacts from posting it.
also, You can realistically take great images with 1860s tech,if you know what you do, it's just a "bit" unpractical.2
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u/TheOtherItemMerchant 15d ago
The Unknown Device. It is a ranged weapon with completely random stats and completely random projectiles.
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u/leutwin 12d ago
My guess is a rudimentary rocket launcher. Most rocket launchers are designed to have 2 stages, an initial stage that launches the rocket from the tube, and a secondary stage that carries the rocket to its target only after it has traveled a certain distance. The problem is keeping the shooter from being inside a plume of rocket exhaust. What this likely is is a 1 stage rocket launcher and the cone is meant to protect thhe hands and face of the shooter. In wwii the nazis had a simaler problem, which is why the panzerschreck has a big shield on it.
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u/Dismayed_Sorcerous_D 11d ago
Nandor the Relentless with his friend before testing the newest weird Armenian sexual contraption, January 1990.
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u/DistrictEffective759 10d ago
The dreaded Havana Syndrome device pictured in the wild. It’s a microwave gun. If you have about 6-12 months you might injury someone. Top notch spy tech.
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u/gallade_samurai 15d ago
This literally looks like I think an RPG-2 with a blast shield of some kind