All language subtitles for Historys.Greatest.Machines.with.Dolph.Lundgren.S01E01.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[tense music]

[ticking]

- [Dolph] When it comes
to winning a war,

it's not just
attitude that counts.

Sometimes it's all
about altitude.

Get above your enemy

and you can rain down the pain

so the machines that
perfect attacking from above

can change the
rules of engagement.

[dramatic music]

Tonight, the most high-tech
fighter jet in the world.

- The helmet lets a
pilot lock onto a target

just by looking at it.

- [Dolph] Plus the ultimate
Cold War machine

that launches a nuclear
weapon from the battlefield.

[artillery booms]

- In the 1950s, America
has the most powerful gun

in the world.

- And the ultimate
aerial assassin,

controlled from
thousands of miles away.

- These drones go on to
kill dozens of Taliban

and Al-Qaeda leaders
all by themselves.

- I'm Dolph Lundgren.

Onscreen, I'm all about
the action, but offscreen,

I have degrees in engineering,
I even studied at MIT.

I learned that machines

and the people behind them
can transform the world.

Join me as I explore the
gears, grit, and genius

behind history's
greatest machines.

In modern aerial combat, speed
and firepower aren't enough.

You need stealth.

There are fighter jets that
fly faster, turn tighter,

and even hit harder.

But if an enemy sees this
high-tech plane coming at 'em,

it's probably already too late.

[tense music]

- By the end of the 20th
century, the century of war,

the United States military
now has a bit of a problem.

For years, it's been
fighting all different types

of combat operations,
particularly in the air,

and it's had aircraft
dedicated to specific missions,

fighter bomber, fighter,
stealth operations.

- It's a mess

because they now have
this entire fleet

of really highly
specialized aircraft.

Each one has a different
engine, different parts,

and even its own
maintenance procedures.

- The fleet is aging

and it's been a while since
we can consider the F-16

and the F-18 as cutting edge.

[tense music]
[jets roaring]

So in 1996, the U.S.
creates the JSF,

the Joint Strike
Fighter program.

- [David] The JSF basically
has a wishlist.

They want something that's going
to be incredibly compatible

with all branches of service
at the United States military.

Also, all of its allies,

something that's gonna
have double the firepower

of anything else,

but most importantly, stealth.

[tense music]

- [Dolph] By the 2000s,
enemy radar gets sharper

and so do
surface-to-air missiles.

Building stealth fighters
becomes a Pentagon priority

because the enemy can't shoot
down what they can't see.

- [David] Modern warfare is
about stealth, invisibility,

getting to the
target, getting back.

It's a totally different
world from what the past was.

- [Dolph] Landing the contract
to make the JSF's new plane

is a huge prize for
the major players

in the aerospace industry.

- By 2001, it's down to
Boeing versus Lockheed Martin,

and they're both in the running

to land this
$200-billion contract.

- [Kavitha] Both companies
prototypes meet all the

requirements that
the JSF is demanding.

They fly faster than Mach 1.5,

which is about
1,200 miles an hour,

and they're working
on a Marines plane

that can perform short
takeoffs and vertical landings.

This is the tough one.

- [Austin] By the competition
deadline,

the Lockheed prototype takes
off in less than 500 feet

and is able to land vertically.

- [Kavitha] Boeing's plane can't
perform both of these tasks

without stopping
to swap out parts.

And because the enemy doesn't
let you call a timeout,

Lockheed wins the contract.

[tense music]

- [David] The plane has renamed
the F-35

and officially goes
into production.

And six years later,
Lockheed starts delivering

the first F-35 joint
strike fighters.

- [Dolph] At first glance,

you might think the F-35
is like previous jets,

but you'd be wrong.

- [David] I was the first Marine
to operationally fly the F-35B,

and I can tell you,
having flown the F-16

and the F-18, there is
nothing like the F-35.

It is the best plane
I've ever flown.

- [Kavitha] Its engine can
produce 40,000 pounds of force.

That's more than any

other previous
single-engine combat jet.

- [Dolph] And those
short takeoffs

and landings allow it
to strike from anywhere.

No big bases required,
thanks to a key addition.

- [David] There's basically
a small helicopter

in the middle of the
back of the F-35.

I say small, it's
well over a ton,

but essentially it's a
giant fan that spins,

pushes a cold cushion of
air through the bottom

of the aircraft on which
the aircraft can fly.

- [Dolph] Engineers
like to talk components,

and one of them is
the top-secret skin

that helps the F-35
virtually disappear.

- [David] There is thick gray
paint on the entire body of the

F-35 made up of microscopic
radar-absorbing materials.

It is a highly
classified material.

It's not something you're
gonna find at a Home Depot.

In stealth mode,

the F-35 has a radar footprint
smaller than a golf ball.

- [Dolph] Okay, that's all cool,

but here is something
straight out of sci-fi.

The F-35 has sensors that
collect 360 degrees of pictures

and data and feed it all
to a one-of-a-kind helmet.

[tense music]

- [Rutledge] Older jets have
cluttered instrument panels

with switches and
dials everywhere.

The F-35 brings all of that
information right to the helmet.

- [Kavitha] The helmet is almost
as important as the plane.

It starts with a 3D
scan of the pilot's head

in order to custom
fit the helmet

to within fractions
of a millimeter.

Each one costs $400,000.

- [Rutledge] $400,000.

That's the price of a
really nice Lamborghini.

Because this plane uses

so many different
cameras and sensors,

wearing this helmet
essentially gives you

like a God's eye view.

Anywhere you turn, you
can see through the plane.

- [David] The helmet lets a
pilot lock onto a target

just by looking at it.

It follows your head
and eye movements

and helps you track
targets just by seeing it.

The F-35 is the ultimate
fusion of man and machine.

- [Dolph] And when man and
machine lock onto a target,

there are multiple options.

- [Rutledge] Remember, the goal
of the F-35 is to be stealthy,

but to also have a
ton of firepower.

The jet has two internal
missile and bomb bays.

A lot of those bombs
have pretty rough edges.

It can easily set off radar.

So this way it keeps it stealth
until it's ready to attack.

- [Kavitha] That's stealth mode.

But if the F-35 is
not going stealth,

it can carry more, a lot more.

[tense music]

- [Rutledge] When the F-35's
fully loaded,

it can actually carry
22,000 pounds of ordinance.

That is called beast mode.

[tense music continues]

- [Dolph] So what does this
extraordinary machine look

like in action?

Well, since it's only
been in combat since 2018,

the vast majority of the F-35
missions remain classified,

but not all of them.

- [Rutledge] In 2019, ISIS has a
cache of weapons hidden deep

in the Iraqi Hamrin Mountains
in fortified tunnels

that pose a direct threat
to the U.S. allies.

- [Austin] They think they're
well out of the range of allied

planes, but they
haven't met the F-35.

- [David] A pair of F-35s take
off from Al Dhafra Air Base

in the United Arab Emirates
and head to the target.

- [David] The strike force
targets a weapon cache

and bombs in a tunnel system

using something called the JDAM.

The Joint Direct Attack
Munition, a smart bomb.

- [Austin] The bombs drop
through the peaks of the

mountains and
score a direct hit.

The weapons cache and its
stronghold is destroyed.

Mission accomplished.

- [Kavitha] This is the future
of fighter jets.

Precision strikes in
hostile territory.

Nobody can see the F-35 coming

and it's gone just as quickly.

It's a stealth
attack from the sky.

[gentle music]

- [Dolph] The F-35 may be

the most cutting-edge
aerial attacker today,

but back in World War II,

the U.S. creates
another game changer,

a long-range bomber so effective

that it earns the name
the Flying Fortress.

[tense music]

- In the 1930s,
the U.S. Air Corps,

which is a part
of the U.S. Army,

it's still yet to become
its own air force,

is looking to develop
a new type of bomber.

- [David] Officials are worried
about the winds of war

that are now blowing in
Europe and in the Pacific.

So what they're looking for is
a particular type of aircraft

that is going to
have a heavy payload.

[tense music]

- The Army's new airplane,

the B-17 Flying Fortress, is
thought of as being a part

of an overall national
defensive strategy.

At this point, we're
not thinking of bombers

that will bomb enemy cities

and industrial
manufacturing centers.

We're thinking of bombers that
will protect the homeland.

- [Dolph] But Congress thinks
the B-17 is too expensive.

It's future's on the line

until one commander
hatches a plan.

[tense music]

- Lieutenant Colonel Robert Olds

wants a dramatic
public demonstration

of what this plane can do,

and he's found a
tempting opportunity

as an Italian passenger liner,

the Rex, approaches
New York Harbor.

- [Greg] So basically Olds is
thinking,

if I can get this B-17
out into the ocean,

to essentially
intercept the Rex.

Obviously we're
not gonna touch it,

we're not gonna damage it,

but just show off
the flying ability

to get there, to get back.

It'll basically grab attention

and just prove the
value of the B-17.

[tense music]

- [Dolph] On May 12th, 1938,

three B-17s take
off from Long Island

to hunt a cruise ship.

- [David] The B-17s locate
the Rex 650 miles

off the Eastern Seaboard.

- [John] The three B-17 bombers
descend over this ship

and fly in low.

Now the passengers

and the crew were kind
of freaked out by this,

but photographers are thrilled.

- [Martin] The moment has
a lot of meaning

because it symbolizes the
old world of sea power

is being supplanted by the
new world of air power.

- [David] So as a result, the
B-17 now gets the funding.

- [Dolph] By the summer of 1941,

German forces controlled
most of Europe.

The Allies realized their
best chance to hit Germany is

to attack from the air.

[tense music]

Enter the B-17.

- The B-17 as an
airframe is well suited

for this new mission,

which calls on it
to fly from England

across the English Channel

and drop bombs in
Nazi-occupied Europe.

Initially, the B-17's
operational altitude is so high

that the Luftwaffe,
German Air Force,

struggles to deal with it.

- [Dolph] Hitting
targets from that high up

wouldn't be possible without
the B-17's best-kept secret,

the groundbreaking
bombsight named

after the guy who
it, Carl Norden.

- The B-17's Norden bombsight

really is an ingenious
piece of equipment.

The bombardier looks
down through the eyepiece

and spots the target and
then it enters information.

- The Norden bombsight is

essentially a very rudimentary
analog style of computer,

and what it does is it takes
the inputs from altitude,

wind speed, air speed,
and wind direction,

and it calculates where
the ideal release point is

for the bombardier
to release the bombs.

[explosions booming]

- [Martin] The world has been
flying for less than 40 years

at this point, and nevertheless,

the Norden Company has given
the U.S. Army Air Forces

the ability to drop a
bomb from 30,000 feet

and put it within 120 feet of
a target on the ground below.

That's an incredible
leap of technology.

- [John] Bombardiers are
required to swear an oath

that they will
destroy the bombsight

if their plane is shot down.

The only other project
that has this level

of secrecy is probably
the atomic bomb.

[tense music continues]

- [Dolph] To defend
itself in the air,

the B-17 gets 13
50-caliber machine guns.

- You cannot attack a B-17
without staring down the barrel

of one of its
50-caliber machine guns.

That's part of the reason
why it had a 10-man crew,

to cover the entire
area for defense.

[guns popping]

- [David] Well, the Flying
Fortress is appropriately named.

It has half-inch-thick
armor in certain vital areas

to make sure that gas tanks
and engines are covered.

- [John] The ability of the B-17
to take a lot of hits

and still come home
becomes legendary.

[tense music]

- [Dolph] In 1943 during a
mission over North Africa,

a German Messerschmitt
even crashes into a B-17,

leaving a big hole
and the B-17's tail.

- This tail manages to stay
attached by hook and crook,

just enough for them to fly
300 miles all the way back

to their base in Algeria.

- [Dolph] The durable
B-17 flies more missions

than any other American
heavy bomber in World War II,

cementing its legacy.

But that comes at a price

because the B-17 has to fly
without fighters alongside it,

something pilots
call an escort gap.

- [David] That means the
B-17s have escort

from American fighters right
up to the German coast,

but as the enter
hostile territory,

the American fighters
have to go home.

- [David] Not because of
heavy German defenses,

but because the range
of aircraft wasn't

that extensive at that time.

So this escort gap
becomes incredibly deadly

because, once the bombers
reach that escort gap,

they're on their own.

- [Martin] The loss rate of the
B-17 for a time is quite high.

There are missions where it
spikes to as high as 20%.

Those are catastrophic losses.

[tense music]

- [Dolph] On October 14th,
1943, this gap contributes

to the Eighth Air Force's worst
single loss day in the war.

They call it Black Thursday.

- [Martin] For this mission,
291 U.S. Army Air Forces B-17s

are escorted toward
the target by fighters,

but the fighters have to
break off over Belgium.

- [Greg] The B-17s take out the
targets that they needed to.

However, the Germans
take out 60 bombers.

[tense music continues]
[guns popping]

That's about 20% of the
entire strike force.

- [John] As powerful as the B-17
is,

no plane flying without
fighter escort can go

into enemy territory
during broad daylight

and get out unscathed.

- [Dolph] What the Allies need
is a new kind of aerial

attacker, something fast enough
for dog fights,

but with the range
to escort the B-17s

all the way to Berlin and back.

Problem is, that fighter
doesn't exist yet.

[tense music]

- [John] Rewind to 1940

when the German Army is
marching across Europe.

The British know that
they are on Hitler's list

and they also know that
their chances of survival

are largely gonna depend on
how well they do in the air.

- [Martin] So the British are
looking for an air

superiority fighter

that will level the playing
field against the Luftwaffe.

The British have two
excellent fighters already

in the form of the
Hurricane and the Spitfire,

but the factories producing
them are running at maximum.

They can't produce more.

- [David] So they turn to
an American company

to create this new
aircraft for World War II.

- [Martin] In a span of 100
days, which is

absolutely incredible.

North American aviation
provides a prototype

that looks like it's going
to provide all the speed

that they could have
ever dreamed of.

The British decide
to nickname it

for the American horses
that roam the West.

[upbeat rock music]

- [Dolph] It's the P-51 Mustang

and it's been built with
a combination of features

that make it fast, fierce,
and able to fly farther.

- [John] The wing design is a
more aerodynamic airfoil shape

that reduces drag
and increases speed.

It enables it to fly
at really fast velocity

without burning a
whole lot of fuel.

- [David] In terms of armament,

the P-51 has three 50-caliber
machine guns on each wing.

Those six guns are
bringing the heat,

both air-to-air
and air-to-ground

- [Dolph] For all that,
the P-51 has a drawback.

It can't fly high enough.

- [Martin] That's a problem,
especially for an aircraft

that is being asked to fly
escort missions for bombers

that will fly at
altitudes of 35,000 feet

above German cities.

- [Dolph] In May, 1942,
a Rolls Royce engineer

gets permission to
replace a P-51 engine

with a Rolls Royce
Merlin engine.

- [David] The higher you go in
altitude, the thinner the air,

and as a result, most of the
engines start gasping for air,

but not the Rolls Royce Merlin.

It's figured out a way
now of packing in the air

and keeping it flowing smooth

so the aircraft can fly
higher and fly faster.

- [Dolph] With this new
engine and just two months

after Black Thursday,
the P-51s are about

to give an assist to
the beleaguered B-17s.

[tense music]

- [Martin] In December, 1943,

the P-51 Mustang flies
its first escort mission

for the B-17.

The loss rate for
the B-17s goes down,

and that's because the P-51

can match the aerial
capabilities of every fighter

that the Germans can
put up against it.

- [John] The Mustang can operate
a full mile higher

than any German plane can,
and that's a huge advantage

- [Martin] And thanks to the
P-51,

B-17s are now
bombing German cities

with greater and greater
effectiveness than ever before.

[dramatic music]

- [Dolph] By this point,
you'd think the Mustang

had nothing left to prove,

but in February, 1944,
it gets a new mission.

- [Martin] It's called
Operation Argument.

The goal of it is to lure
the Germans into an ambush

with the objective of destroying
German fighter aircraft

and, more importantly, killing
the pilots that fly them.

- [David] The Allies bomb
key industrial areas,

drawing the Luftwaffe
up, but it's a trap.

In fact, P-51s are
ready and waiting,

and as soon as the
Luftwaffe launches,

P-51s swoop in for the attack.

- [Martin] The result of
Operation Argument is

that the Germans lose 10%
of their fighter strength.

An air force that it
took years to build

is decimated in the
span of seven days.

[tense music]

- [Dolph] By the time D-Day
launches on June 6th, 1944,

the Allies have air superiority.

- [David] As a matter of fact,
when the Allies stormed the

beach with 156,000
men on June 6th,

the Luftwaffe barely
comes out to play.

- [Martin] So these two
machines, these two aerial

attackers, together turn the
tides on the air war

in the largest conflict
of the 20th century.

- The first aerial attackers
don't fly, they launch.

In 300 BCE, Alexander the
Great devastates his enemy

from the sky with a
highly-engineered machine

raining down stone,
fire, and fury.

[tense music]

- At 336 BCE, a new king
takes the throne in Macedonia.

His name is Alexander the Great.

He's young, he's ambitious,

and he's looking
not just to rule,

but also to conquer,

first Greece and then Asia.

- Alexander is a
creative thinker

and he uses innovation
on the battlefield.

He's one of the few generals

who actually has a
team of engineers

that follow his army around.

[tense music]

- [Dolph] Alexander's engineers
build massive machines

to attack the walled
cities in Alexander's path.

They're called siege engines.

- [Hakeem] A key siege engine
is the catapult.

Now, the catapult pre-existed,

but they were primarily used

to shoot arrows at
defenders on a wall.

But Alexander sees more
potential in these machines.

- [MJ] His engineers make key
changes to the design.

They scale it up so

that it can launch much
more than an arrow.

[tense music]

- Alexander the
Great's catapults

are a complex feat
of engineering.

The largest are 12 feet tall
with a giant V-shaped frame.

At the top are two
enormous torsion springs.

- [Hakeem] To understand
a torsion spring,

imagine a bundle of ropes

and then you stick a
piece of wood through it

and you rotate it
over and over again

until the ropes end up in
this tightly wound bundle,

just waiting to pop.

Once it's ratcheted back,

a 100-pound stone is loaded

into the sling
attached to the rope,

and then it's fired.

- [Kavitha] When a gunner
releases the mechanism,

the springs unleash the
rope with enough force

to launch a stone nearly
300 feet toward the enemy.

- Think about the leap in power
from a musket to a cannon.

That's the size of the impact

this new catapult
has on warfare.

- [Dolph] But the
biggest challenge

to Alexander's new catapult
will come in a place

whose defenses are
fortified by the ocean.

[dramatic music]

- [Dr. Paul] In 332 BCE,
Alexander is marching through

Phoenicia , which is
modern-day Lebanon,

and he's approaching
the island city of Tyre.

- [Hakeem] Tyre is an incredibly
important city

in the Phoenician Empire

because it controls trade
across a vast region.

- [Dolph] But Tyre's
unique topography

won't make things easy.

- [Hakeem] You see, the city of
Tyre has an unusual dual setup.

While half the city
is on the mainland,

the other half is on an island
a half mile off the coast,

and that island is completely
surrounded by a wall.

- [MJ] Ancient accounts,
probably exaggerated,

make the claim that Tyre's
walls are 150 feet high.

Regardless of their
actual height,

Tyre is a very
well defended city

and it's gonna be
tough to invade.

- [Hakeem] Imagine
rolling up on a city

and seeing that it has a
moat, which is the ocean.

Any sane human who sees
those sorts of fortifications

would probably
say to themselves,

hey, let's make a
trade agreement.

But not Alexander.

- [Dolph] Then Alexander
comes up with a bold plan

that he hopes will make his
catapults even more effective.

- [Kavitha] Rather than loading
the catapults onto siege towers

like he's done in previous
battles, he has a new idea.

He orders his engineers to
anchor them to the decks

of his new naval fleet.

- [MJ] On his command,
Alexander orders his navy

to fire their catapults at
the southern walls of Tyre.

They rain down literal tons
of these 100-pound stones

that are obliterating the walls

and also structures
inside the city.

- [Dr. Paul] The fortress walls
crumble around the Tyrenes.

The Macedonian army finally
breaches the defenses

and takes the city.

- [Dolph] Stories of
Alexander's catapults

leveling Tyre spread fast.

Other cities and ports
along the coast surrender

to him without a fight.

- [Hakeem] Much of the credit
goes to these catapults,

turning them into
city-conquering machines.

[wind whooshing]

- [Dolph] In 1949, the Soviet
Union successfully

tests an atomic bomb.

Suddenly, the U.S. isn't
the only superpower

with nuclear weapons.

The Pentagon needs
to come up with a way

to fight not just an
all-out nuclear war,

but a limited tactical one.

So they invent a machine
called Atomic Annie.

- [Martin] Since the end of
the Second World War,

the Soviets have gobbled
up more territory.

They've gobbled up significant
portions of Eastern Europe,

and the problem is that
they might one day try

to gobble up more.

How do you deter
them from doing that?

- Senior army leadership
starts asking questions.

Could we use a small mobile
nuke on the battlefield?

Or at least threaten to do that?

- [Dolph] In 1949, the brains
at the Pentagon get to work.

The result is the M-65.

[tense music]

- The M-65 artillery
gun is massive.

It's 85 feet long, 10
feet wide, 22 feet high.

It takes two tractors, one in
the front, one in the back,

just to move the thing.

- This is meant to be a
mobile battlefield weapon,

but it is 86 tons.

That's more than
a humpback whale.

- [Don] Bad artists copy, great
artists steal, right?

So lead engineer Robert
Schwartz models his new weapon

on the German K5 railway gun.

[gun booms]

- [John] Back during the
war in early 1944,

the Germans are pounding
U.S. forces in Italy

using a K5 railway gun
during the Battle of Anzio.

And the U.S. GIs refer to
this gun as Anzio Annie.

This new weapon is going to be
an American version of that.

- [Don] Officially, this new
artillery gun is known as the

M-65, but because of its
nuclear capabilities,

and as another nod to the K5,

she's known to most
as Atomic Annie.

[tense music]

- [Dolph] In 1953,
Atomic Annie debuts

during Dwight D. Eisenhower's
inaugural parade.

- [Martin] So it's sending a
pretty strong message

to the Soviet Union when we say,

here's our new

democratically-elected
president.

Oh, and by the way, he's the man

that helped us win World War II,

and have a look at
our new atomic cannon,

capable of delivering a shell

that causes a nuclear explosion.

[tense music]

- [Dolph] It's a big
moment for a very big gun.

Annie's bragging rights include
her mobility and firepower.

- [Martin] It takes two
artillery prime movers, or

tractors, to move this thing,

but they can get it up
to 35 miles an hour.

Doesn't sound like much,
but that's the speed

that a modern-day tank can move.

- [Andrew] Atomic Annie needs a
crew of eight people to operate.

These eight people can actually
mount the gun in 12 minutes

and stow the weapon
in 15 minutes.

That is an incredible
amount of efficiency

for a weapon that carries
this much battlefield punch.

- [Martin] As far as what Atomic
Annie is packing, it's a wallop.

It's capable of firing

a W9 280-millimeter
nuclear projectile,

specially made for the M-65.

- [Don] When fired, the
shell remains unarmed.

Inside, a mechanism will trigger
the device once it reaches

the right distance
from the target.

- [Dolph] When that fuse lights,

a ring of enriched uranium
fires at a cylinder of uranium.

Their collision sets
off the nuclear fission.

In other words, boom.

- [Don] Most people don't even
know this cannon exists.

But in the 1950s,

America has the most
powerful gun in the world.

- [Andrew] The U.S. Army is
not messing around

and they want everyone to
know this weapon exists.

It may sound crazy,

but they even find a way to
fashion it into a children's toy

so that kids across
America can play with it.

- [Announcer] And here is
Ideal's exact duplicate

of the Army's gigantic
atomic cannon.

The cannon's loaded.

Aim.

Fire.

[tense music]

- [Martin] On May 25th, 1953,
the army rolls out Atomic Annie

for a test firing at the
Nevada test site in an event

that will also include a
live television broadcast.

- [Don] Now, this has never
been attempted before.

Everyone involved knows that,
if something goes wrong,

God forbid, it is going to
damage American prestige

and strength across the globe.

- [Martin] The target's just
over seven miles away

across Frenchman Flat
at the Nevada test site.

- [Announcer] Three, two, one.

- [Martin] At 8:30 AM, Atomic
Annie fires her nuclear shell

for the first and only time.

[explosion booms]

- [Dolph] The M-65
hits the target

and the result is the
infamous mushroom cloud

of nuclear power.

The world is officially
put on notice.

- [Don] The M-65 is posted
at tactical locations

and is never once
fired in combat.

It never has be.

- [Andrew] In many ways, this is
the ultimate Cold War weapon.

It only had to be fired once

and nobody wanted to mess
with the United States

on the battlefield for 10 years.

That's the kind of deterrence

that you get from an
aerial beast like the M-65.

- [Dolph] Helicopters started
out as troop carriers.

Get in, get out,
try not to get shot.

Then someone asks,

what if one of these
things could shoot back?

The result is the Apache
attack helicopter,

and it turns the aerial
battlefield upside down.

[tense music]

- The world's first
dedicated attack helicopter

fights in Vietnam.

It's introduced in 1967.

The AH-1 Cobra.

The aircraft works
great in tough terrain,

it's excellent for
pinning down enemies,

and that makes it perfect
for providing air support

for troops in contact
on the ground.

- The Cobra's big problem,

when it's hit by enemy fire,
it goes down far too often.

Plus, the army sees a
new war on the horizon

against an enemy
that's well equipped

and technologically advanced.

- [Martin] The U.S. military
recognizes

that it will probably
eventually go to war

with the Soviet Union.

And when it does so,

it will have to contend with
heavily-armored Soviet tanks,

and so they're going to
need a helicopter capable

of knocking out those tanks.

[tense music]

- [Dolph] To develop
this new machine,

the Army kicks off the Advanced
Attack Helicopter program.

- [Martin] This aircraft is in
design development for over a

decade, but then
finally in 1987,

the first AH-64 Apache attack
helicopter enters service.

[tense music]

- [David] It's more than 48 feet
long and 15 feet high.

The Apache makes
its presence felt,

and those four rotors have
a diameter almost as big

as the aircraft itself.

- [Martin] It takes a lot of
oomph

to get an attack
helicopter into the air,

which is why you need
two engines to do it.

But then the second engine
provides the added benefit

of, if you'll lose
one engine in combat,

the remaining engine
will get the aircraft

and the crew back to safety.

- For durability, the
Apache is a massive upgrade.

It has 2,500 pounds
of armor designed

to stop a 23-millimeter round.

- [Martin] And who uses
23-millimeter armament?

Soviet Union.

- [Dolph] The main weapon
on any anti-tank aircraft

has to be the tank stoppers.

For the Apache,

it carries as many as 16
laser-guided Hellfire missiles.

- [Martin] If you wanna knock
out a Soviet T-72 tank,

you need to hit it hard

and you need to hit
it with precision

because it's got 11-inch armor.

A Hellfire can do that job
while traveling at Mach 1.3

and it can hit targets
accurately out to four miles.

- [Don] If you're crewing
a Soviet tank

and you hear that there's
a new American helicopter

that can pierce armor
from several miles away,

you're not feeling
very comfortable.

- [Dolph] Not every
target requires

a laser-guided
armor-busting missile.

Sometimes point and shoot
gets the job done just fine.

- An attack helicopter
has to have a big gun.

For the Apache, it's the
30-millimeter M230 chain gun.

It fires 650 rounds a minute.

- [Dolph] The rounds in this gun

are almost eight
inches in length.

That's like seven standard
nine-millimeter rounds

stacked end to end.

- [Don] When guns fire
rounds that big,

they actually call 'em cannons.

So the Apache is kinda

like this battleship in the sky.

- [Jason] August 2nd, 1990.

Saddam Hussein invades
and takes over Kuwait.

The response and
immediate military buildup

by U.S. and Coalition
forces in Saudi Arabia.

- [David] When Iraq refuses
to leave Kuwait,

the U.S. formulates a
massive bombing campaign

to try to get the
Iraqis to retreat.

- [Don] First, forces need to
destroy the radar systems

that control the
anti-aircraft guns.

So what's the perfect aircraft
that can fly below radar

and neutralize a
well-guarded target?

The Apache.

[dramatic music]

- [Martin] On January 17th,
1991,

eight Apaches lead a
strike force into Iraq.

In an awesome show of force,
they attack radar sites

that allow the bombing
missions to fly in safely.

- [David] Over the next several
days,

Apaches destroy almost
300 Soviet-made tanks.

This is an absolute masterclass
in close aerial combat.

- [Dolph] 10 years
later in 2002,

the Apache is called upon
for a very different mission,

battling dug-in Al-Qaeda
and Taliban forces.

It's called Operation Anaconda.

- [Don] The U.S. ground forces
need armored support for

protection and heavy artillery,

but the geography of this
area makes it impossible

to use tanks or artillery.

Even airstrikes are difficult.

- [Dolph] It's the perfect
job for the Apache.

- [Don] On March 2nd, Operation
Anaconda is a go,

but almost immediately
things go sideways.

The allied Afghan force
is out of position.

And, oh yeah, there aren't
100 or 250 Taliban fighters.

There are 500.

[tense music]
[guns popping]

- [David] Everything near
this village of Marzak

is taking hits from
rifles, machine guns,

and rocket launchers.

It is chaos.

- [Jason] Two of the Apaches
take heavy damage.

And while they make it
back to base successfully,

they're grounded,
along with another one.

But that doesn't
stop the other three.

- [David] The Apaches are
expected to support for about

two hours.

They end up flying
the entire day,

doing around-the-clock
refuelings

and returning to
the battlefield.

- [Martin] They fire hundreds of
rounds

from the 30-millimeter
auto cannons.

They fire dozens of rockets,

and they even fire
one Hellfire missile.

They're definitely
the flying tanks

that the army needs on this day.

[dramatic music]

- [David] Every single Apache
has multiple bullet holes,

and yet they return
time and time again.

This is the dream

of the Advanced Attack
Helicopter program in action.

- [Dolph] It doesn't dog fight,
it doesn't chase, it just hovers

while it watches.

Controlled from
half a world away,

this aerial attacker can put
a target in its crosshair

without risking the
life of a pilot.

[tense music]

- Israel, 1973, is engaged
in the Yom Kippur War

against Egypt and Syria.

The war is only
three weeks long,

but in that time, Israel
loses 100 military airplanes.

- It turns out the Syrians
have this radar system

that is clocking the
Israeli fighter planes

and then launching
auto targeted missiles

to shoot them down.

- [Dolph] The Israeli
Air Force turns

to young civilian engineer
named Abe Karem for a solution.

- [Hakeem] Ever since he was a
kid, Abe has been tinkering

with what he calls his toys.

He's built hundreds
of model airplanes.

He even went on to design

and fly his own
miniature aircraft.

- The Israeli Air Force comes
to Abe and asks for help.

So Abe pulls an all-nighter

and, at some point, he
comes up with a plan.

What if there was a
small unmanned craft

that launched itself off
the wings of a fighter jet

as it made its way
toward its target?

- These drones could
actually distract

and draw off enemy radar,
which allows the fighter jets

to go in and attack
their targets unmolested.

- [Dolph] After Abe
submits his solution,

the Israeli military
drags its feet.

He thinks they're taking too
long to implement his ideas,

so he decides to
move to the U.S.

- [Sami] Abe wants to create
a whole new toy,

the ultimate toy if
you're in the military.

An advanced remote-controlled
unmanned drone.

- [Dolph] He starts
his own company,

but it's nothing like
Boeing, Lockheed, or Douglas.

For one thing, it's
out of his garage.

- The future of unmanned
aviation is built

in a 600-square-foot garage in
Hacienda Heights, California.

This is like Jobs and Wozniak
developing the Apple II

in Jobs's parents' garage

- [Dolph] After two
decades of work,

the CIA gives Abe a chance
test his latest drones

in the field.

[tense music]

- [John] In 1994, civil war is
ravaging the

population of Bosnia.

The United States

and its NATO allies need
effective realtime intelligence

in order to intervene.

Bosnia is mountainous and small.

A spy satellite can only
pick up intelligence

for a couple of minutes.

An operation like this

is gonna require more long-term
intelligence gathering.

- [Andrew] CIA brings in Abe
Karem and his new prototype

because they believe
that an endurance drone

could be the solution
they're looking for

for their surveillance problem.

- [Hakeem] Two drones are
deployed into the airspace

of the Bosnian War.

And if everything
works as it should,

the CIA director should
see live video footage

from a war zone taken by a drone

while sitting at his
desk in Washington.

- [Andrew] Within minutes, the
CIA director's monitors come to

life with real-time footage
beamed from across the world

by an unmanned aerial
vehicle, a UAV.

- [Hakeem] Armed with this
new intelligence,

NATO intervenes to stop
the bloodshed in Bosnia.

And just like that,
the new Pandora's box

of military drone
technology is open.

- [John] Thanks to Abe and his
vision,

the MQ-1 Predator drone is born.

[tense music]

- [Dolph] This is no
consumer-grade drone.

This is a heavy-duty
military machine

that will be deployed to
hotspots around the world.

- [Andrew] It's 27 feet long
with a wingspan of 55 feet,

and it only stands six
feet off the ground.

It weighs just
over 1,100 pounds,

but that's actually very
lightweight for its size.

- [John] It's capable of staying
in the air for up to 24 hours,

reaching heights of 25,000 feet.

[tense music]

- [Hakeem] If you can directly
observe

what your adversaries are up to

and do that 24 hours a day
at such a high altitude

that they don't even
know you're there,

that's a tactical advantage.

A drone can take off from
somewhere in the Middle East

and be controlled in real time

from an airbase in California.

- [Dolph] The surveillance power

of the Predator
impresses the Air Force,

but they see an opportunity

to revolutionize not just
reconnaissance, but combat.

[tense music]

- [Sami] The Air Force begins
experimenting with weaponry.

And in June of 2000,

the Predator fires
its first missiles

during testing in Nevada.

- [Andrew] The MQ-1 Predator
drone is equipped

with two laser-guided
Hellfire missiles.

These missiles are capable

of flying over 1,000 miles per
hour and can penetrate armor.

That means this drone can
switch from surveillance

to strike force at any time.

- [Hakeem] It can lie in wait
five miles up in the air,

identify its target,

and then eliminate it.

These tests go incredibly well,

but still the Predators are
not approved for combat use.

[tense music]

- [Dolph] That changes
after the 9/11 attacks.

The U.S. authorizes authorized
armed Predator flights

for use in hostile territory.

And in 2006, using
multiple Predator drones,

the US military tracks
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,

leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

-[John] It takes several
drones multiple days

of high-level surveillance,

but they're able to lock
on, confirm his identity,

and remain glued to the location

until the perfect
time to strike.

- [Andrew] The Predator drones
don't fire in this case,

but their real-time data feed
is forwarded to fighter jets

that come in and
neutralize the targets.

But during the larger
global war on terror,

these drones go
on to kill dozens

of Taliban and Al-Qaeda
leaders all by themselves.

- [Dolph] For thousands of
years of combat,

one thing has stayed consistent.

If you can strike from
above, you've got the edge.

It doesn't matter if
it's stone, steel,

or something you
never see coming,

a machine that helps you
control the high ground

is a machine that wins the day.

[dramatic music]