American ingenuity is an incredible force, and nowhere more so than on the battlefield.

Weapons like the M16 rifle have been battle tested and refined to near-perfection. Others like the atomic bomb are so powerful they changed the world.

While there's no scientific way to compare these weapons, we took what we saw in service, what we've read, and what we've heard from troops to rank the most effective.

These weapons are trusted by the U.S. military to defeat the enemy and save lives.