The world is filled with police and paramilitary vehicles that are unbelievably fast, incredibly durable, or just straight-up weird. Among the vehicles listed are world record-holders, amphibious conveyances, and other assorted automobiles that you have to see to believe. However, as weird as some of them are, they could be the future of law enforcement and public security.

To solve the problems that our law enforcement agencies face on a daily basis, the originators of the following vehicles have come up with some innovative ideas (although some might be rather odd). This list will take you throughout the world because this much peculiarity can’t be found in just one country, let alone one continent.

10 Hoverbike

Dubai is home to some of the most exotic police vehicles in the world, but none quite exotic as police-operated hoverbikes. That’s right, by 2020, Dubai police are expected to be patrolling the streets with these eVTOLs (electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles) produced by Hoversurf, a one-of-a-kind business whose goal is to solve the transportation problems faced by the world.

Hoversurf’s eVTOL can hover 5 meters (16 ft) off the ground and travel at a top speed of 100 kilometers per hour (60 mph).^[1] These vehicles can fly for ten to 25 minutes with a pilot and for up to 40 minutes in “drone mode,” with no driver. Hoversurf also produces a hovercraft capable of carrying cargo and, in the law enforcement field, potentially convicts or other detainees. As advanced as this may all seem, Dubai isn’t the only one looking toward the future. Uber is working with NASA, the US Army, and aircraft companies to establish a flying vehicle network.

9 Kalashnikov Shchit

Kalashnikov has created a vehicle that is capable of dispersing crowds and protecting officers at the same time. The Shchit, or “Shield,” is quite literally a wall on wheels, featuring a 7-meter (24 ft) retractable wall capable of protecting 38 officers. In this case, “retractable” means that the wall has the ability to reduce its width to fit down narrow streets. Not only is the wall retractable, but it also has a water cannon, small holes for riot police to fire projectiles through, and a camera on the top that allows for vision from the driver cabin and potentially remote piloting.^[2]

Kalashnikov’s plans don’t stop there. According to their CEO: “In addition to the ‘Shield’ complex, we are also working to introduce new design solutions for wheeled armored vehicles on the market both for the domestic market and for export supplies.” There isn’t a set date as to when we can expect to see this hit the streets, but when it does, it will be a sight to see.

8 Tennessee Highway Patrol Trucks

The highways of Tennessee are rampant with drunk drivers, people texting while driving, and unbuckled seat belts. To catch offenders in the act, the Tennessee Highway Patrol has employed the unorthodox method of using officers in unmarked semitrucks.

The force tasked with driving these unmarked vehicles consists of 97 officers who have a commercial driver’s license, which allows them to operate the 18-wheelers on the open road.^[3] Don’t worry, though: You won’t be pulled over by a semi, as the officers only radio the offender’s vehicle description in for another policeman in a patrol vehicle to take care of. So, next time you’re tempted to break the law, be sure to check your mirrors for any officers in trucks.

7 Police Tractor

Across the pond, the UK is taking things a little slower, or rather a lot slower. With a top speed of 40 kilometers per hour (25 mph), please welcome a John Deere tractor. Specifically, it’s a John Deere 6630 that weighs 5 tons and costs around £50,000, hardly a pursuit vehicle. With its top speed in mind, its day-to-day functions would be rather passive, but should the need arise during severe flooding, it could be rather useful.

The main use of the tractor was for the Lincolnshire Police to show the initiative they were taking to put a stop to agricultural crime back in 2010.^[4] When a tractor is stolen, the impact on the livelihood of the owner is immense. The hope was that the police tractor would encourage farmers to tag their tractors to prevent loss of property.

6 Bugatti Veyron

For the opposite end of the speed spectrum, we go back to Dubai to check out the world’s fastest police vehicle, their Bugatti Veyron. With a top speed of 407 kilometers per hour (253 mph) and a price tag of $1.7 million, this is definitely the flagship of the Dubai police force. As verified by Guinness World Records, Dubai now possesses the world’s fastest police vehicle in service. The previous record-holder was an Italian police force who set it with their Lamborghini Gallardo at 370 kilometers per hour (230 mph).

The Veyron isn’t the only supercar to join the ranks of the force; it’s merely one of the 14 exotic cars that Dubai is using to break down the wall between the police and the public.^[5] Even though it has the capability to hit amazing speeds, it isn’t used as a pursuit vehicle. In fact, all it does is “patrol” tourist areas as a marketing tool.

5 Gibbs Quadski

If hoverbikes and the world’s fastest police vehicle weren’t enough for you, then look no further than Dubai’s very own amphibious ATV. Produced by Gibbs, the Quadski can transform into its aquatic configuration in just five seconds and can reach a top speed of 72 kilometers per hour (45 mph), or 38.9 knots, on both land and water.^[6] Under the hood, you can expect to find a BMW engine that has dual cooling and is capable of producing 140 horsepower.

For the base model, you can expect to pay $40,000, which is a rather modest price considering that Dubai has a Bugatti in its ranks. A two-seat version, the Quadski XL, is also available. Even though the Quadski can be outrun by other boats, the Dubai police have their own fleet of boats that can reach 144 kilometers per hour (90 mph) to back it up.

4 Electric Patrol Vehicle

The Armored Spherical Cabin Electric Patrol Vehicle, manufactured by Zhijing Qingyuan, isn’t built for its looks but rather its protection capabilities. With Level-A armor (a standard set by the Chinese ministry of public security), this patrol car can withstand most pistol bullets. In addition to the bulletproof ride, it also allows for a 360-degree view of the surrounding environment. The peculiar patrol car also took a page out of Alfa Romeo’s book by using scissor doors.

Not only is the vehicle capable of withstanding gunfire to an extent, but it is also environmentally friendly, as it runs on an electric motor. It is capable of reaching 80 kilometers per hour (50 mph). As of a month after its unveiling in October 2014, no police forces had bought any of these odd-looking vehicles, though several were showing interest.

3 Caparo T1

Unlike the tractor from earlier, this British police vehicle is capable of hitting speeds well over 40 kilometers per hour (25 mph). In 2015, a police Caparo T1 was unveiled in Birmingham. Weighing less than 500 kilograms (1,100 lb) this car looks like a Formula 1 racer and can go nearly as fast, with a top speed of more than 320 kilometers per hour (200 mph).^[8]

Although it is more than capable of reaching high speeds, there were no plans to actually use it in day-to-day law enforcement operations, except in the most extreme crimes such as being a big meanie on Facebook or Twitter. Generally, it was to be showcased around the UK.

2 Pedal Car

When you think of a police car, you probably think of a vehicle powered by a monster V8. The Hampshire Constabulary went in the opposite direction in 2010. In fact, they eliminated the whole engine aspect from their patrol car by using pedals rather than cylinders. With a max speed of 32 kilometers per hour (20 mph), this man-powered patrol car was built by an officer and students at Ringwood Comprehensive School and took an impressive 40 hours to complete.^[9]

The pedal car’s purpose was to combat antisocial behavior by breaking down barriers between the police and the youth of the UK. Admittedly, even if Fred Flintstone was in this car, just about anything could outrun it, but it’s not about actually apprehending anyone. It’s about keeping the youth focused on productive things rather than antisocial behavior. Because of the pedal car’s blistering top speed, it was entered in that year’s British Pedal Car Grand Prix.

1 Lenco BearCat G3

Every year, police officers in the US die during shoot-outs, arrests, and ambushes. Normal police cruisers just aren’t cutting it. That’s where the 8-ton Lenco BearCat G3 comes in, with a maximum capacity of ten officers and the ability to withstand .50-caliber bullets.^[10] Taking its chassis from a Ford F-550, the BearCat can reach speeds of 130 kilometers per hour (80 mph), act as a battering ram, and, should the need arise, survive a chemical weapons attack. It also features a winch.

The BearCat isn’t all talk. In Tyler, Texas, in October 2010, a gunman unloaded his AK-47’s magazine at the police force’s brand-new BearCat, and not a single officer was harmed. The BearCat is an essential tool that is being deployed across all 50 states. Not only is it good on paper, but it also provides a psychological edge in a shoot-out or a pursuit simply due to its size. This monster SWAT vehicle crushes the tractor in weight and dominates the spherical pistol-proof car in its ability to withstand gunfire. The facts prove that the BearCat is indispensable for every SWAT team in the United States.

Throughout human history, the invention and manufacture of deadlier and more efficient weapons has helped turn the tide of war. Sometimes, the vehicles that took these weapons to the battlefields also secured important places in history due to their impact on how wars are fought.

Where would the atom bomb be if it had not been delivered, and how would naval warfare look without submarines? These vehicles completely changed the face of war by altering how it was planned and fought.

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10 Enola Gay

On August 6, 1945, 12 men boarded a Boeing B-29 Superfortress that was named Enola Gay after the mother of the pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets Jr. He and his crew had a highly classified and dangerous mission: Deliver the payload dubbed “Little Boy” to their primary target, the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

On that fateful day, the aircraft didn’t disappoint. At 8:15 AM Hiroshima time, the bomb was dropped. It took the ordnance less than a minute to fall from the aircraft’s altitude of 9,470 meters (31,060 ft) to its designated detonation altitude of 600 meters (1,968 ft).^[1]

The bomb destroyed nearly 70 percent of the city’s buildings and killed around 30 percent of its population. The Enola Gay’s crew felt the shock wave after traveling 18.5 kilometers (11.5 mi) away.

When the Enola Gay returned to its base in Tinian, the crew was welcomed with great fanfare. The colonel stepped off the plane and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross immediately. The significance of deploying a new devastating weapon shaped the strategic and tactical planning for militaries and governments around the world.

Eventually, nuclear payloads were designed to fit atop their own launch vehicles. Still, history will never forget or forgive a plane that has become as infamous as it is famous. Decades after the war, the Enola Gay was restored and put on permanent display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

9 Turtle

In the early 17th century, Dutch inventor Cornelius van Drebel came up with a submersible craft, but another 150 years passed before a submarine was used in war. That chance came when American inventor David Bushnell decided that the best way to deliver underwater mines was to use a submarine. So he built one.

Bushnell constructed a 2.4-meter-long (8 ft) wooden craft that he christened the Turtle due to its overall shape. Mostly powered by hand, the Turtle was designed to accommodate a single operator and used lead ballast to maintain balance.^[2]

When the American Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, mariner Ezra Lee took the craft donated to the war effort by Bushnell and used it in combat. Lee piloted the Turtle out to the HMS Eagle, a 64-gun vessel in New York Harbor. On September 7, 1776, he attempted to place a timed bomb onto the ship by drilling into the hull.

Although he remained undetected, he failed to pierce the iron sheathing on the hull. The bomb exploded near both vessels, but the Eagle remained afloat. Despite failing in its mission, the Turtle was a successful proof of concept. Continued advancements in submarine development remained a top priority for navies across the globe.

8 Little Willie

The news that the United States Marine Corps was retiring its fleet of tanks in 2020 helped drive the notion that the tank’s importance in modern warfare was at an end. Although that may be true in 2020, the tank changed how land warfare was conducted for more than a century.

It all began with a 14-ton behemoth, “Little Willie,” that was created by the British Army in 1915. Little Willie was slow, got stuck in the mud, and was something of a death trap. However, it was the first armored vehicle ever constructed, and it wasn’t long before upgrades made it combat-ready.

The second prototype, “Big Willie,” entered service in World War I during the First Battle of the Somme. This Mark I tank wasn’t as successful as the British would have liked, so the Mark IV took over as the main battle tank for the British Army. With that, the face of warfare changed forever.

The tank was created to combat the messy trench warfare killing millions across France, and it worked. Mark IVs were successful in capturing thousands of soldiers and enemy guns.

By World War II, the tank was the primary combat vehicle deployed by both the Allied and Axis powers. These vehicles continued to dominate land warfare throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries.^[3]

7 USS Monitor

Naval warfare has been around for as long as people have taken to the water intending to kill one another. Although ship designs and capabilities have evolved over time, the wooden sailing ship was the dominant naval vessel for thousands of years.

In 1859, a new type of vessel emerged to end the age of wooden sailing ships. Ironclads were developed by the French and the British, but it wasn’t until the US Civil War that the first ironclads engaged in battle. The USS Monitor was commissioned in February 1862, and its innovations offered a new means of fighting on the water.^[4]

Older sailing ships could be disabled by destroying their masts and sails, but the Monitor was steam-powered with no masts. In fact, the bulk of its mass sat below the water, making the vessel difficult to hit. Atop its deck stood a turret capable of rotating nearly 360° to fire its two 11” smoothbore shell guns.

In its first combat action, it engaged the CSS Virginia, the Confederate’s first ironclad. But that battle ended in a draw. When ironclad ships proved themselves effective in combat, the age of sailing ships began to decline. Navies around the world upgraded their existing vessels and constructed new ones to survive the world’s much deadlier waters.

6 Bleriot XI

Though ubiquitous today, airplanes weren’t used in warfare until 1911 during the Italo-Turkish War. In that conflict, the Italians flew the Bleriot XI monoplane on a mission to bomb the Turkish camp at Ain Zara, Libya.

As a result, the Bleriot XI became the first airplane used in combat. This primitive aircraft lacked many modern elements that pilots now take for granted, including a canopy and a means of releasing bombs onto a target.^[5]

To deliver a bomb, the pilot had to throw the ordnance and hope it hit the target. Although this may seem silly compared to today’s weaponry, many pilots became quite good at delivering bombs weighing as much as 25 kilograms (55 lb).

The first man to do so was Second Lieutenant Giulio Gavotti on November 1, 1911. The word “bomber” had yet to be coined, so the press referred to him as “the flying artilleryman.” Once the concept of using an aircraft in combat was proven possible, the age of aerial combat began. It has continued for over 100 years.

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5 V-2 Rocket

During World War II, the V-2 rocket was developed by the German Army as a “vengeance weapon” to inflict damage on Allied cities and targets in response to Allied bombings of German cities. Wernher von Braun, the designer of the V-2, was a leading figure in the German rocket development program. The V-2 was first used in combat in September 1944.

The rocket vehicle was able to carry a warhead of 1,000 kilograms (2,200 lb). When fully loaded, the V-2 weighed in at a hefty 12,500 kilograms (27,600 lb). It could travel as far as 320 kilometers (200 mi), but it was incredibly expensive and not as reliable or accurate as more conventional artillery.^[6]

Although the weapon saw some success, the V-2 holds a place in history as the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. It also reshaped the nature of war. Following the V-2’s development, a great deal of time and money was spent by governments across the globe to perfect rocketry for use in the developing space race and future combat operations.

From the V-2, nations developed rockets capable of being fired from submarines, underground bunkers, and the tops of vehicles of all types. Intercontinental ballistic missiles ensured that a first-strike nuclear operation anywhere in the world remained a possibility. And it all began with the V-2.

4 Messerschmitt Me 262

Aircraft design until World War II focused on increasing speed using propeller engines. For decades, these vehicles were more than capable of taking to the skies to kill the enemy, but it wasn’t to last.

Eventually, jet-powered aircraft became the norm. But one early example deserves special mention. The Messerschmitt Me 262, the world’s first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft, transformed the battlefield in the sky.

Much faster and armed more heavily than other World War II fighters, the Me 262 was ahead of its time. Although the aircraft was far from perfect, it shocked and demoralized enemy combatants who encountered it. In addition to the Me 262’s speed, its compact MK cannons could destroy an Allied bomber while staying out of range of enemy fire. Its R4M rockets were no slouch, either—when they fired correctly.

Fortunately, these aircraft didn’t enter into widespread service, so they didn’t have a chance to change the scope of World War II. But they certainly helped to alter the face of aerial battle for every war that followed.^[7]

As the war ended, the Allied powers captured a large number of Me 262s as only about 21 percent of the 1,433 produced had gone into operational service. When the Allies got their hands on the airplane, they quickly got to work deconstructing it to copy and improve the design.

Following the war, the models based on the Me 262s included the North American F-86 Sabre, the Boeing B-47 Stratojet, and the MiG-15. After World War II, most nations stopped flying prop planes in combat and shifted to jet power instead. This changed warfare in the air and helped to bring the age of battleships to an end.

3 HMS Dreadnought

At one time, the shape of international naval dominance came from the country that controlled the most battleships. These iron monsters carried some of the most devastating cannons to be outfitted on a naval vessel, and they all got their start after the 1906 commissioning of the HMS Dreadnought for the Royal Navy.

The introduction of the Dreadnought revolutionized naval power such that the word “dreadnought” became associated with the first generation of battleships. These vessels were powerful, heavily armored, and unmatched for most of the 20th century.^[8]

The Dreadnought was covered with guns. It had ten 12″ guns, twenty-seven 12-pounder 3” guns, and five 18” torpedo tubes. Various parts of the ship’s hull had armor measuring 7.6–30.5 centimeters (3–12 in) thick. The deck’s armor measured up to 7.6 centimeters (3 in) thick.

Unfortunately, the Dreadnought did not participate in any World War I naval battles because it was being refitted at the time. Still, the vessels inspired by Dreadnought went on to dominate and then support naval operations until 1991.

2 Hosho

Of all the naval vessels used in warfare, the aircraft carrier had the most significant impact on combat operations during much of the 20th century. Attempts to have fixed-wing aircraft take off from and land on ships began in 1910. But it wasn’t until 1922 that a navy produced an aircraft carrier designed specifically for that purpose.

That vessel was the Hosho, which was commissioned in 1922 for the Imperial Japanese Navy. The ship went on to participate in combat operations during World War II.^[9]

The Hosho could carry 15 aircraft and support a crew of 512 people, which is considerably less than a modern carrier. But in 1922, it was incredibly advanced. The Hosho remained in service until 1946 after supporting operations in the battles of Pearl Harbor and Midway.

After the war, all improved carrier designs built upon the success of the Hosho. Modern navies are structured around carrier strike groups, which enable a fleet to provide forward support and combat operations anywhere in the world.

1 MQ-1 Predator

The General Atomics MQ-1 Predator entered the battlespaces of US combat in July 1995. Although it wasn’t the first drone used in warfare, it was the first aerial reconnaissance aircraft to be widely deployed in support of US military operations around the globe.

The MQ-1 could be controlled from anywhere in the world for up to 26 hours at a time, which took pilots away from dangerous airspace while significantly extending their operating time. This drastically reduced the manufacturing and operational costs for each system, which enabled the US to put 360 of them into service over a 25-year period.^[10]

While the Predator has been an excellent reconnaissance aircraft, the real innovation came when the United States Air Force opted to add Hellfire missiles to its payload. The newly dubbed MQ-1A could fire missiles at targets outside visual and auditory range, which made it an effective killing machine.

Since the addition of weapons in 2001, the Predator has completely reshaped the battlespace, making it possible to safely engage targets anywhere in the world. But it hasn’t been without controversy. The MQ-1 left service in 2018 as newer, deadlier aircraft took its place.

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About The Author: Jonathan is a graphic artist, illustrator, and writer. He is a Retired Soldier and enjoys researching and writing about history, science, theology, and many other subjects.