40 years later, the Pentagon responded to a letter from an 11-year-old boy who sent the design of a cruise missile

A 51-year-old Reddit user under the nickname Schmal told the forum that in 1978, as an 11-year-old boy, he sent his drawings of a cruise missile to the Pentagon, which could be created. He equipped the missile with a nuclear warhead, a guidance system, small missiles inside and a machine gun on the hull. As a child, Schmal did not know which ministry in Canada could send it, so he sent the "design" to the American Pentagon.

40 years later, the US Department of Defense finally responded by sending an official letter. The user posted the full text of the answer and a photo of a similar drawing (the original version was not returned by the Pentagon) on Reddit.

An employee of the ministry named Robert wrote that the department had studied in detail the "well-drawn design" of the Canadian. He explained why the Pentagon could not accept this option: for example, Schmal depicted too large wings that would be ineffective at supersonic speed (which is provided in the figure). And some parts of the weapons are not "new or original" because the US Army already has such concepts. He supported his arguments with facts and information from research.

In an official response, the US Department of Defense praised the child's imagination. The Pentagon explained its slowness by checking the proposed weapons for viability.

The picture attached to the post, although it does not display the original sent version, but conveys the author's approach to design at the age of 11. The picture shows a "submarine-plane" with a machine gun, rockets, small rockets in large rockets and a laser cannon. Just in case, a Reddit user added mines on chains and three periscopes to the device.