From the Kalashnikov to the Drone: Weapons of the Cold War and After

The AK-47 was adopted by the Soviet military in 1949 and became the most widely produced firearm of the twentieth century. Its robust gas-operated action traded some accuracy for reliability in mud and sand, which suited irregular and poorly resourced forces.

Also entering Soviet service in 1949, the MiG-15 used swept wings to fly efficiently near the speed of sound. In the Korean War it outperformed the straight-winged jets it first met, and its debut pushed accelerated fighter programs in the United States and its allies.

The F-4 Phantom II entered United States Navy service in 1961, and 5,195 were built, making it the most-produced American supersonic military aircraft. It became one of the defining combat aircraft of the Vietnam War.

First delivered to the Soviet Army in 1961, the RPG-7 is a reusable shoulder-launched anti-tank rocket launcher. More than nine million units have been produced, and its ruggedness and low cost keep it in use with state militaries and insurgents alike.

The M16 entered service in 1964 as the XM16E1 and became the standard American infantry weapon in Vietnam. Chambered for the 5.56mm round, it was lighter than the battle rifles it replaced, and its descendant, the M4 carbine, is the main individual weapon of most American ground forces today.

The Minuteman III entered service in 1970 as the first deployed intercontinental ballistic missile with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles. Held in underground silos, it has formed the land-based leg of the American nuclear triad for more than five decades.

The German Leopard 2 entered West German army service in 1979. After reunification, surplus tanks sold to other European armies earned it the nickname Euro Leopard, and since 2023 donated Leopard 2 tanks have fought in Ukraine.

The M1 Abrams entered United States Army service in 1980 with a multifuel turbine engine, Chobham composite armor and a computer-controlled fire-control system. In the 1991 Gulf War the M1A1 lost no tanks to enemy tank fire.

Entering operational Air Force service on October 1, 1980, the F-16 pioneered a frameless bubble canopy, a side-stick controller and relaxed static stability with fly-by-wire controls. More than 4,600 have been built, and it is the most common fixed-wing aircraft in military service worldwide.

The Stinger, in service from 1981, is a shoulder-fired infrared-homing missile. It made its combat debut in the 1982 Falklands War, and Stingers supplied by the Central Intelligence Agency gave Afghan fighters an answer to Soviet helicopters in the 1980s.

The Tomahawk cruise missile entered Navy service in 1983 and flies low on terrain-hugging or satellite-guided paths. American forces fired more than 288 of them in the 1991 Gulf War, establishing it as a signature tool of long-range precision strike.

The Russian T-90, developed from the T-72, entered service in 1992 with a 125 millimeter smoothbore gun, Kontakt-5 explosive reactive armor and the Shtora countermeasure system. It has seen combat in Syria and in the Russo-Ukrainian War and has been exported to and built in India.

The MQ-1 Predator entered United States service in 1995 as a surveillance aircraft, then was fitted with two Hellfire missiles, turning a reconnaissance platform into an armed strike aircraft. It was retired in 2018, but it established the armed remotely piloted aircraft as a lasting category.

The B-2 Spirit stealth bomber reached initial operational capability in 1997. Only twenty-one were built, yet in the 1999 Kosovo War six of them flying round trips from Missouri dropped eleven percent of all bombs used by NATO forces.