Wunderwaffe Redux: From the Sonnengewehr to Putin’s Hypersonics
History is unkind to miracle weapons.
In World War I, it wasn’t a futuristic invention that changed warfare but the brutal economics of mass firepower: machine guns, barbed wire, shells. Today, on the battlefields of Ukraine, it’s the cheap FPV drone—a flying hand grenade with a GoPro—that’s grinding down tanks and logistics.
The lesson is simple: mass and cheap beats scarce and shiny. When leaders obsess over prestige projects—whether it’s Hitler’s rockets or Putin’s hypersonics—they trade the working currency of war (volume, resilience, attrition) for theatre.
Nazi Precedent: The Sun Gun and the Jet That Never Won
The Sonnengewehr (Sun Gun): A sci-fi orbital mirror dreamed up by Hermann Oberth, hyped in Allied press in 1945. Promise: burn cities with concentrated sunlight. Reality: fantasy.
The Me 262 Jet Fighter: Over 1,400 built, but shortages of fuel and trained pilots meant only a few hundred were combat-effective.
The V-2 Rocket: Technologically dazzling, strategically marginal—thousands launched, but mostly terror value.
Pattern: enormous investment, little decisive payoff.
Putin’s Arsenal of Prestige
Hypersonics (Kinzhal & Zircon)
Marketed as “unstoppable.”
Intercepted by Patriot batteries within months of debut.
Still used sparingly and loudly—perfect for theatre.
Su-57 Stealth Fighter
Billed as Russia’s answer to the F-35.
Delivered in dozens, not hundreds; most remain at standoff range.
Too scarce to risk—yet one was still damaged by a Ukrainian drone strike.
Armata T-14 Tank
The ground-force Wunderwaffe.
Unmanned turret, capsule crew, advanced protection.
Too expensive to deploy in Ukraine—Chemezov himself admitted it.
Seen in parades more than in battle.
For every T-14, Russia can field multiple upgraded T-90Ms—so it chose the latter.
Poseidon & Burevestnik
Nuclear-propelled torpedo and cruise missile.
Lovecraftian in concept, plagued by test accidents.
More fear-theatre than operational reality.
These are prestige artifacts: great for headlines, weak for attrition war.
Space Fantasies: From Sun Mirrors to Peresvet
Znamya-2 (1993): Real Russian orbital mirror that briefly lit up Earth—closest cousin to the Sonnengewehr.
Peresvet Laser: Likely an anti-satellite dazzler, not a death ray.
Polyus-Skif (1987): Soviet orbital laser prototype, failed on launch.
Different physics, same aura: “from space” equals psychological leverage.
Why Regimes Love Wunderwaffe
1. Compensation for weakness: Substituting spectacle for scale.
2. Deterrence signalling: Keep adversaries guessing.
3. Domestic prestige: Give publics symbols of inevitability when the war of attrition looks grim.
Evidence vs. Inference
Evidence
Su-57 numbers: ~20–27 by 2024, contract for 76 by 2027.
Kinzhal intercepts: confirmed by Ukraine & NATO partners.
Armata: admitted “too expensive,” almost absent in combat.
Poseidon/Burevestnik: publicly touted, at least one deadly test accident.
Znamya: successfully deployed in 1993.
These systems are propaganda-first, warfighting-second.
Mass cheap systems (machine guns in 1916, FPVs in 2025) consistently outmatch boutique Wunderwaffen.
Bottom Line
Putin’s Wunderwaffe obsession mirrors Hitler’s: a fixation on low-volume prestige weapons that look decisive but aren’t.
The FPV drone swarm today plays the same role the machine gun nest did in World War I: a reminder that the war is decided by what can be built, fielded, and replaced in vast numbers—not by the rarest item in the parade.
Wunderwaffe win headlines. Mass systems win wars.