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What If a Modern Destroyer Fought the Mongol Invasion Fleet?
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- Published on Apr 18, 2026
- Kublai Khan's 1281 invasion fleet was 4,400 ships and 140,000 soldiers.It was the largest coordinated naval assault the medieval world had ever attempted. Every kingdom that had stood in the Mongols' path before Japan had fallen. Every single one. But what if a USS Zumwalt appeared and fought Kublai Khan's fleet?
It's your 2 AM "what if" scenario and there are some plot holes but I think this one is the most fun one.
#militaryhistory #animatedhistory #navalhistory 
Science & Technology
Hydrogen bomb vs dying ant
vs Coughing Baby
You forgot to add the s so now its Hydrogen bomb vs dying ants
Literally my first thought LMAO
Coughing baby ants
Tubby
Why would they need stealth tech 😂
To avoid radar detection obviously
nah in this specific scenario, the old ships don’t have detection tech
@Soilphonic Think it was sarcasm
They wouldn't, a cannonball would probably scratch the paint at worst. The 30mm cannons could be used as decksweepers. No sailboat is catching a 30 knot warship.
You’re right it’s totally useless here, but it helps explain the Zumwalt’s full capabilities
sooo 1000 ants against 1 giant elephant LOL
And the elephant can throw a bugzapper into the ant pit.
And the “throw” is more like a +100mph pro mlb fast ball
The elephant wouldn’t be able to touch its back or knees
Remember fire ants can climb into an elephants ear and eat the brain without an issue, and if you add 1000.... 😂
Could be a baby one. Results are the same 😂.
"The Mongolians weren't able to detect the 18000 Ton ship with their Radars" like what they gonna do? Call in air support 🥀😭
(Edit: I don't know why I'm editing this sooo. Thx for all the like?)
radars meaning sleepy men at the front of the ship
Actually, the Zumwalt would light up one _every_ Mongolian RADAR set!
Skill issue.
@itsameearl😂
their detection technology is restricted to the human eyeball only
the script sounds so chatgpt lol
It 1000% is. It repeats the same things and does things in 3's.
yup, "this isn't just X, this is X + Y"
also it opens up with radar stealth, super nonrelevant to the szenario... I'm 2 mins in and get already slopped
A lot of people farm off content from chatgpt
In the worst way possible
Imagine it’s the year 2758, and there’s a video about one future warship fighting 1,000 stealth destroyers… I wonder if it will be a similar level of dominance
Frr
I think there won’t be any war ships in 700 years, we are limited by weight and aerodynamics otherwise we would’ve already had airplanes the size of the destroyer ships. No in 700 years there will probably be ships more closer to Star Wars starships than our warships
Three Body Problem
Likely not. The current biggest issue for modern warfare is that missiles are the best weapon humanity has ever invented by far.
MIssiles are great against infantry, armor, ship armor, buildings, and planes, and they are extremely effective against other missiles if designed to intercept, their biggest downside is that they are literally just flying bombs. Single use items that can have a variety of effects.
Given 700 years we might have developed point defense good enough to stop any and all missile attack, including nuclear missiles, or we might have developed some sort of shielding that missiles will struggle against, blowing up on the shield instead of the hull.
Otherwise, they will struggle against missile barrages, which might very well still be their main source of offense and defense.
@xxhowisuxx they would probably be autonomous arsenal ships with laser defense
Wasting an insane amount of water for this, guys.
💯
its cute you think the water goes away
@DarkAttack14just because it doesn't stop existing doesn't mean it's not removed from the water cycle
@KYJsIt exactly means that bro
@zalmacak6835 Like... literally. What? What does he mean...
just take an ice breaker and literally ram the ships until they sink
Don't even need an icebreaker, or a munition. At 30+ knots, the Zumwalt could simply ram every ship in this fleet and turn them all into match sticks. Might scratch the paint a little. That's about it.
Their boats were full of explosives so to do it with 4000 ships is a bad idea
@eliteofnerf835 might melt the paint
Exactly.
@ericakensho7780 Yep.
"Hydrogen bomb Vs coughing baby" ah video
In medieval times the coughing baby (carrying the plague) might be just as lethal
I mean it's cool but like stealth isn't even important for this time period... I don't know why it was harped on so much in this video
100% - it’s not like the Mongols we’re sat there watching their radar scratching their heads.
The video was simply explaining its capabilities, even though stealth is indeed useless in this scenario.
To make the video longer lol
If it's stealth to radar then what chance does the naked human eye have at detecting it especially under low visibility.
Is that not the point?
@TreverBeeftown-sd7di The human eye doesn't care about radar ffs - it sees a big round ball as easily as a stealth destroyer. The stealth doesn't matter AT ALL.'
The .missile knows where it is because it knows where it isnt
@hkiller57
5:00
F35 fighter jet vs a paper airplane
I think in this case an WW2 Battleship would actually be more effective than a modern destroyer
100% it would have been way more interesting to see Yamato curb stomp everything into absolute oblivion. Now that would be a terrifying sight.
2 words sea wiz look it up 20 mm 8 barreled rotary cannon with 2 of them mounts in parallel
@ShiroiShinjuDC5You're right! A Japanese ship should have been used in this scenario!
@ShiroiShinjuDC5 totally
Missed opurtunity
The USS Iowa would just run them all over
0:22 Except the ghost of TSUSHIMA
I love you bro❤
You know ball.
No need for any weapon...take a Russian ice-breaker, full forward and demolish everything.
😂😂😂😂
Don't even need an icebreaker, or a munition. At 30+ knots, the Zumwalt could simply ram every ship in this fleet and turn them all into match sticks. Might scratch the paint a little. That's about it.
RADAR doesn't care about fires.
Genuine question: Couldn't the destroyer just ram all the other ships?
Yes and get some paint scratch
@jarmars2777😂😂😂
That is honestly the only option once they run out of ammo and genghis has and entire continents worth of soldiers to keep throwing at you .. eventually they are getting inside that gunship
@j@jakenbake2203they wouldnt be able to get in the doors are armored and closed
@jakenbake2203 The secondary 155mm Guns have hundreds of shells, You just need one for each ship
1:33 wtf are u talking about they didnt have f'n radars they would just see the big ass metal ship ..💀
Light reflection panels
you're not gonna see it over the horizon because its just gonna be that far away, if anyone did see it, it'd be a fuckin dot in their sight, they would think its a fishing boat much closer than it actually is
you’re slow
@Logzilla393 They should have some kind of telescopes, so they can see something coming
@KarthikMyneni_52
Kubla Khan - 13th century
Telescope - 17th century
Mongols had Mark 1 eyeballs power!
4:25 "Without emitting an detectible signal" bro, the mongols didnt have signal radars like tf are you on about?
You do realise he’s fully explaining how it works in general?
Idea: what if the entire country of modern USA was transported back in ww2 era
we don't have the same manufacturing capabilities to sustain a WW2 scale war so it wouldn't go well - we gave all our resources to the billionaires..
@MSGTMurica We don't need it largely. Germany would have no defense against decapitation strikes, Hitler would be killed almost immediately and that would likely cause the fall of the German empire before it even begins. The US would have a massive opportunity to stop the USSR from forming. The US could pretty handily take over the world if it wanted, but it lacks the manpower to occupy the entire planet so the empire would eventually crumble. Likely leading to a collapse of what was the largest empire to ever exist. Technology would rapid advance across the world, even faster then it actually did, which was incredibly rapid.
@MSGTMuricaDumbest 💩 I've read all day.
@MSGTMurica On a sidenote. This is completely untrue. You see, the real reason that WWII production levels are essentially impossible is that everything is far, far more complex then it was in WWII. Tanks are no longer just armored boxes made of layers of steel and other composite materials, but they're state of the art war machines with sloped, depleted Uranium and other rare earth minerals armor, with highly complex computers that allow them to target anything from infantry to other vehicles at more than a mile away. While also attempting to keep the vehicle whole with both hard and soft kill measures against things that could destroy said tank.
It's much the same with every other vehicle. Still, given full war time economy, and provided we could source not only the rare earth minerals, but the computers needed to create such machines.
And that gets to the next thing that would make the US essentially invulnerable: The longest ship to ship kill in WWII was 13 nautical miles/26,000 yards. The harpoon anti ship missile, used on most, if not all US combat ships, has a range of 150 nautical miles. Modern ships often struggle to survive missiles, which is why so much effort has went into counter measures.
Essentially any modern, first world nation could be shoved into WWII and take over the planet. It's far from just the US. There is literally no counter to missile barrages. Forget decapitation strikes, the US could just destroy the Japanese Navy from hundreds, if not thousands of miles away.
You could send EVERYTHING that didn't already exist in the US at the US in WWII and the US would not only win, but take very few losses.
@kaayjaay8 Its true though. any reason you called it dumb?
6:42 you know it’s bad when even the ship is scared
this is hilarious 😭😭
I see it 😂😂😂
They wouldn't even need to fire a single weapon. With its speed and maneuverability, the Zumwalt could simply ram every ship and turn the entire fleet into match sticks. Might scratch the paint a little. That's about it.
It won’t just “scratch the paint a little”. It’ll scratch it a lot. Might even need to go into drydock to get a redone paint job. /s
Yep.
@TSERJII would be so pissed if they scratched the duco, wooden battleship scrapes don't just buff out.
@bojangles2492 yeah, tell 'em!
I disagree. a few hundred Mongol warriors or even sailors would easily overwhelm the crew. The doors would probably slow them down, but not stop them. Mean while, just crashing into the Mongol ships would damage the legendarily fragile aluminum hull of the Zumwalt, causing stress fractures and eventually catastrophic failure
I had no idea Mongol eye used radio waves instead of the visible part of the E-M spectrum. That ship is completely invisible to them.
1000 ant sized girafs vs 1 giraf sized ant
Nice name😂
Never thought about this scenario before. A modern destroyer would completely rewrite naval history here.
4:57 “The crew switches to inertial navigation. The missile knows where it is because it knows where it isn’t…”
3:57... rolled eyes reaction
why is bro glazing the zumwalt so much XD
I would also
Radar cross section
Because the chatGPT promt was, "please compare a naval battle of 14th century Mongolian ships off the coast of China facing off against the amazing USS Zumwalt which is defending Japan's waters and has been teleported back in time. Make sure to promote the Zumwalt enough to give Pete Hesgeth a war boner."
Bro just repeating itself
Chatgpt ahh script
darknesss
Dude! One Fletcher-class destroyer could've destroyed that entire fleet!
It would be extreme diff but it does the job
tomahawk against an old wooden warship seems unnecessary.
if you have 4400 tomahawks on board would be ok 😂
Doing it for the love of the game.
5:00 the missle knows where it is because it knows where it isn't
Typa thing id only watch while im eating and you caught me at the right time
Realistically they wouldn’t carry 4400 missiles to destroy all 4400 ships
Intercontinental ballistic missile VS 1 deadass ant
Japan's revived rail gun vs the coin i found in my pocket
ChatGPT ahh analysis. Wtf is stealth and passive radar even being discussed here?
Recommendation: what if you time traveled 5 napoleonic era British naval ships back in time to face Admiral Yi Sun-sin's navy
The destroyer would not even need to fire a single shot. It could ram and sink any ship of that era.
ChatGPT talks for 10 ad-sized minutes about how mongol troops will just blow up horribly, wtf
Do 10000 kindergarteners vs an A10 warthog next.
once you mentioned airburst rounds i got galactic war flashbacks
The result would be the same as every other scenario in which a modern ship/tank/aircraft/etc fights an outdated enemy. Decisive victories in one or two battles, followed by a complete loss of effectiveness due to lack of IMMENSE support system modern weapons require.
probably it could simply ram them and not even have a scratch
1:13 damn the mongols can’t use their radars
But wait... where do they get the fuel? Without fuel this ship is a piece of metal junk? I think the Dynasty guy just has to wait it out! Two weeks and the ship dies..
Hard to imagine wooden ships surviving even five minutes against modern radar, missiles, and naval guns.
9:51 very reminiscent of the instinct among infantry to stay together. When in fact, its far more beneficial to spread out, so that a single blast does minimal damage
If their ship made of metal yes but wood don't stand a chance against advanced ballistic
I genuinely believe it could crash into them all and be perfectly fine
4:58 & 5:30 The missile knows where it is at all times.
It knows this because it knows where it isn't, by subtracting where it is from where it isn't, or where it isn't, from where it is, whichever is greater, it obtains a difference, or deviation.
The guidance sub-system uses deviations to generate corrective
commands to drive the missile from a position where it is, to a position where it isn't, and arriving at a position where it wasn't, it now is. Consequently, the position where it is, is now the position that it wasn't, and it follows that the position where it was, is now the position that it isn't. In the event of the position that it is in is not the position that it wasn't, the
system has required a variation.
The variation being the Difference between where the missile is, and where it wasn't.
If variation is considered to be a significant factor, it too, may be corrected by the GEA.
However, the missile must also know where it was.
The missile guidance computance
scenario works as follows: Because a variation has modified some of the information the missile has obtained, it is not sure just where it is, however it is sure where it isn't, within reason, and it knows where it was. It now subracts where it should be, from where it wasn't, or vice versa.
By differentiating this from the algebraic sum of where it shouldn't be, and where it was. It is able to obtain a deviation, and a variation, which is called "air"...
Huge correction: The Mongol fleet had a serious flaw. Many of them were not seaworthy vessels. It was mostly river vessels.
This video ignores the comical problem that radar is pretty useless against wood (that's why the Mosquito was such an invincible night fighter in WW2). In addition to GPS not working they would actually need line of sight to use their missiles.
Also, the 155mm gun has no ammunition (it was too expensive to manufacture) and would have no GPS to guide it if it had ammunition.
even without that the destroyer can just ram wooden ships, at 30 knots itll be like a cybertruck ramming through wooden boards
@mhm-t5ttrueee lol
Not really they would still be detected.
sails out to give a nice return though
This video should've been a Japanese WW2 Battleship like the Yamato vs the Mongol naval fleet
Another fun "what if?". I was on the Zumwalt for its commissioning. It's so freaking cool inside. Really like being on some kind of futuristic starship. And even better because its first commander was Captain Kirk. Too bad it never got the planned rail gun. Just didn't work out.
I do believe Japan did actually solve the railgun problems the US was having, and I think they are now working together, so there may be a US battleship with a railgun in the future.
I thought the problem was the cost of the proposed ammunition for the original gun on the Zumwalt.
@ojisanhoward8940 The cost of the rounds skyrocketed because the US went from a planned 32 Zumwalts to just... 3. Economics is a bitch sometimes. Those guns are being replaced by hypersonic missile cells as of 2023.
Simply stop existing 😂😂 7:03
Next time make a video on tsar bomb vs 1 million stone age people
This is like a min max stealth build vs. 4400 grunts in a horde shooter game. Nice, the best way to stealth, leave no survivors
@4:55 the satellites don’t exist that guide the tomahawk missles…? Buddy it’s 1281 the frickin stealth destroyer doesn’t exist…unless you explained the worm hole time travel scenario that put them there in the first place, don’t start handing out rules 😂😂😂
Exactly my thought, there wouldn't be electricity/the technology needed to run the ship either
the sky is blue ahh narrator
a lot of the munitions require GPS to be guided toward their target and i dont think there was GPS in the 1200s
Thanks for writing exactly what the video said
@jesseroel8362 I lowk didn't watch the rest of the vid cause it was boring and just nonsense. Your welcome btw
the mess in my room vs my crippling depression
Haven’t seen the full video yet, but I speculate that the biggest obvious issue would be the amount of ammo on the destroyer.
It’s like the question “what if you brought an AR-15 to a civil war fight.” Yeah… the biggest problem is the 30 magazines.”
Moron
It made me remember of I’ve read a Manga long ago where a single Destroyer obliterated a squadron of Wyverns.
Who the fuck cares about stealth? The other side has zero concept of radar. Stealth doesn't mean it's hard to see with your eyes...
I’m pretty sure the Zumwalt also had one bomb that would kill every single person in the Mongol fleet. A small atomic weapon.
The warship runs out of ammo, fuel and food and becomes a floating coffin. Easy mongol victory.
“When Pros meets Hacker” ahh battle
2:52 i thought the british empire was the largest in history??
It was
Largest CONTINOUS empire
But overall 2nd largest yeah
The British Empire had more land, but the Mongol Empire was the largest connected piece of land
It was.
2:52 actually the British empire was the biggest empire in history.
“The Mongols really forgot to turn on the radar for the 18,000-ton side quest boss.”
A plasma gun vs a parking ticket I found in my pocket
*trying to find a certain video and sees this on the homepage*
“Well clearly I have to watch this first”
It's like using big daddy in age of empires 😂😂😂😂
Surprise, Mongols did a nuclear test, Destroyer left.
This video could've been like 30 seconds long
So they don’t have GPS tracking but they have the most advanced ship ever, makes sense
You know a ww2 battle ship outperform a Tomohawk in this case. It will literally be invincible.
Next: 100 Zumwalt vs 10,000 Mongol ships.
Title: "What if the Modern Destroyer fought the Mongol Invasion Fleet?"
Modern Destroyer: (Casually protecting the whole Japan against the invasion)
The actual fight❌️
Glazing the Zumwalt ✅️
Zummwalt better have the infinite ammo cheat codes turned on.
USS Zumwalt's stealth vs the eye of Sauron
who would've guessed that a warship from the modern era with guns and missiles can beat wooden sail ships with no cannons or semblance of technology
gonna need to add the quote from Archibald Corduroy: "IT'S TOO LATE, YOU ARE ALL WOOD!"
Makes you wonder what warfare 700 years from now would be like.
lol imagine a remote controlled bunker buster bomb just flying through them
back then Mongol have radar so powerful that it can detect object in orbit
Modern destroyer has something crazy!
the missile knows where it is
I'm glad the radar can see better with the lights on 😂
guys forgeting that typhoons exist.
From the moment the first Tomahawk launches, it's no longer about invasion. It's all about survival.
Now these are the questions we need to be asking!
Then the zumwalt ran out of gas and ammo leaving her drifitng and defenceless and was overwhelmed by subsequent attacks. The end.
the Mongol fleet: WE GUNNA DIE , HOW AM I GUNNA TELL MY FAMILY ABOUT THIS!?!?
Blockify ad blocker turned RUclips back into what it used to be. Zero ads, just content.
The Japan didn't even need the Zumwalt tho, the mongol invasion fleet got cooked by typhoons
The psychological RAM overflow those Mongol commanders must have experienced... it wasn't just a lost battle, it was a complete hardware incompatibility with reality. 🤯
I would send beck the Yamato, I think the pressure wave alone from the guns would destroy wooden ships.
this means one Alien drone
can disable the whole US navy
its all shits and giggles until another zumwalt comes
"This is a F-35 vs 1000 paper planes" ahhh video
found this video and i'm halfway through it, I'm like "Oh i should like and subscribe. Oh it's called "2 am thoughts"" *looks at clock* it's 2am.... *PRICELESS*