Everyone is always chasing the greatest and latest. But sometimes, when things are built in America – with passion, quality and determination, for a purpose sometimes bigger than us all – they are built to last, and they do last.
Here are the 11 longest-serving military weapons still in the U.S. inventory.
UH-1
These include:
- Weapons like the M2, a .50-caliber heavy machine gun that fires rounds at 2,910 feet per second.
- The B-52 Stratofortress bomber, from 1954, that still carries up to 70,000 pounds of ordnance on flights up to 9,000 nautical miles. This aircraft, along with the C-130 Hercules from 1954, the first KC-135 that took to the air in August 1956, and the still high-flying U-2 from 1956, form a group of unique still-in-service aircraft from more than 60 years ago.
- The M14 (1957) and the M72 LAW (1963) are still being to good use, albeit in a more limited role, and they still form an integral part of the U.S. military aviation arsenal despite being more than 40 and nearly 60 years old.
Take a look, and be surprised by the real age of some of the U.S. military folklore heroes such as the Huey, Cobra, Chinook and Warthog.
Dragon Lady
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