The Military Channel, Discovery Communications’ U.S. network dedicated to history and the armed forces has commissioned World Media Rights for six-part series Top Secret Weapons Revealed.
The series reveals an array of weapons devised by military forces around the world, some so bizarre that they never made it off the drawing board. Unorthodox military innovations featured in the series include a U.S. smart bomb, which was piloted by live pigeons, a jet pack used by flying soldiers, an incendiary bombing program that used bats released from aircraft and a giant Catherine Wheel, designed by the British for the D Day landings in Normandy.
“We loved the fact that World Media Rights secured previously unseen footage of the testing of some of these strange and unknown weapons systems forTop Secret Weapons Revealed,” says Ed Hersh, svp of content strategy for Military Channel.
“Many of these weapons were little known or not known at all and some have to be seen to be believed. Billions of dollars were invested in their development” said World Media Rights executive producer Matthew Barrett. “As a result of the exhaustive testing programs, they were also extensively filmed. Some of the material has never been seen before as we transferred significant amounts of material from the archives into broadcast format.”
The commission is the Military Channel’s second recent programme acquisition from London-based World Media Rights. The broadcaster has also commissioned a six-part series with a working title of Black Ops. Currently in production, Black Ops traces the stories of high profile covert Special Forces missions through interviews, archive footage, and dramatic reconstruction. Black Ops is scheduled for its world premiere on the Military Channel in October, 2012.
The series is being distributed outside of the USA & UK by BBC Worldwide under the alternative title World’s Weirdest Weapons.
Staff Reporter
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