#soviet weapons

Russian soldiers have long followed a grim battlefield ritual: rather than riding inside armored vehicles, they ride atop them. While this might seem reckless, it’s often a matter of survival.

In the 1960s, the Soviet Union attempted to replicate the American U-2 spy plane using parts recovered from a downed aircraft. Despite efforts to reverse-engineer both the airframe and its engine, the S-13 project never took off—literally or figuratively.