Introducing the 5 Most Overrated Weapons of War Ever -Think F-35s and Battleship

What would you have picked? 

byDave Majumdar

Key point: “One very modern example of an overrated weapon is the fifth-generation fighter—perhaps a controversial choice.”

Throughout history, mankind has developed new and often deadly weapons for waging war. Some systems have proven to be effective in battle and have justifiably developed fearsome reputations for their brutal efficiency. Other times, weapons acquire fearsome reputations that are not wholly justified due to their high cost and lack of effectiveness. And some weapons fall into a strange category—holding a reputation completely out of proportion to their actual usefulness on the battlefield and are entirely overrated. Sometimes, these reputations rise to the level of mythology—but hide underlying weaknesses.

(This first appeared in 2015.)

Here are five such weapons—some of the most overrated of all-time—from the past century:

The Battleship:

The battleship as we imagine it today emerged with the HMS Dreadnought when it entered service with the British Royal Navy in 1906. At the time, her design was revolutionary. Unlike previous generations of battleships, Dreadnought was armed with an all big-gun armament of ten 12 inch guns. The design rendered all previous battleships obsolete.