Lists of British Inventions - Military

Military

  • The tank - Developed and first used in combat by the British during World War I as a means to break the deadlock of trench warfare.
  • Fighter aircraft - The Vickers F.B.5 Gunbus of 1914 was the first of its kind.
  • Congreve rocket - William Congreve
  • High explosive squash head - Sir Charles Dennistoun Burney
  • Shrapnel shell - Henry Shrapnel
  • Harrier Jump Jet
  • Bullpup firearm configuration - Thorneycroft carbine
  • Puckle Gun - James Puckle
  • The side by side Boxlock action, AKA The double barreled shotgun - Anson and Deeley
  • Dreadnought Battleship
  • Bailey Bridge - Donald Bailey
  • Chobham armour
  • Livens Projector - William Howard Livens
  • H2S radar (airborne radar to aid the bomb targeting) - Alan Blumlein
  • Bouncing bomb - Barnes Wallis
  • Safety fuse - William Bickford
  • Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife - William Ewart Fairbairn and Eric A. Sykes
  • Armstrong Gun - Sir William Armstrong
  • Depth charge
  • Stun grenades - Invented by the SAS in the 60s.
  • Smokeless propellant to replace gunpowder with the use of Cordite - Frederick Abel
  • Torpedo - Robert Whitehead
  • The Whitworth rifle, considered the first sniper rifle. During the American Civil War the Whitworth rifle had been known to kill at ranges of about 800 yards - Sir Joseph Whitworth
  • The world's first practical underwater active sound detection apparatus, the ASDIC Active Sonar - Developed by Canadian physicist Robert William Boyle and English physicist Albert Beaumont Wood
  • The first self-powered machine gun Maxim gun - Sir Hiram Maxim, Although the Inventor is American, the Maxim gun was financed by Albert Vickers of Vickers Limited company and produced in Hatton Garden London
  • Steam catapult-Commander Colin C. Mitchell RNVR

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