Italo-Turkish War - Airplanes
WW II - Ballistic missiles (V-2 rockets)
Battle of Fleurus - Aerial reconnoissance
If the Old Testament can be taken as historical, at least here and there, then David vs. Goliath marks the first time it was noted in a battle.
I think.
First jet in war?
First heli?
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Hebrew vs. Philistine
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That’s the battle per se.
The first jet to see use in battle was the German ME-262. But you can’t really point to a specific battle it was used in. Unless you count the allied bombing campaign as one big battle.
Nah, you can see slingers on friezes from the middle east dating back earlier, from the Assyrians and the like. Samuel only dates to 600 BC or so.
I’ve never heard Hiroshima or Nagasaki described as a “battle”, but the weapon was pretty darn new.
On the UAVs in modern battlefield, not as an auxiliary to the forces but as the key weapon, it is, I believe but don’t want to fight about it, the stunning example of Israel’s use of them against the Syrians, in the 1982 Lebanon war (not '73). Thirty Syrian AA radar stations lit up the UAVs, and were thereby identified and taken out. Israel downed 80 Syrian jets and lost none. I’d say that was historically significant use of a novel asset. The US soon then began importing UAVs from Israel, as it set into high gear its own technology development.
Yes, active tank defense armaments have been around a long time. But an automatic ballistic intercept for a RPG last year was the first ever. No, it did not turn the course of the battle.
It occurs to me that reactive armor may be an Israelthing. Not sure.
The sad thing is that Israel gets to develop and debut and develop all this weaponry in the field.
Similarly, missile defense is nothing new. But Reagan’s Strategic Defense Iniative is unprecedented in its scope. Thank God, its effectiveness in a US war has not been fully tested, so it doesnt match OP in that sense. The Patriot was a johnny-come-lately, repurposed AA missioe, but was a toe in the door after SDI’s near mothballing.
Come to think of it, Israel’s Iron Dome, has been integral to the outcome of war, and such short range ABM was never done before.
Sorta like the windscreen and the mosquito is a battle–there just isn’t any effective resistence.
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Use of UAV’s in Lebanon was brilliant and successful. But it was far from the first use of UAV’s . But it was hardly the first large scale use of UAV’s. And, although I am sure that Noone Special and Alessan will be able to answer better, I think the UAV’s were used to identify the sites and guide SAM hunting aircraft with ARM onto them.
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No, the first was a Soviet system called the Drozd. Built and deployed in the 1970’s it wasused in Afghanistan. It was automatic as well and quite successful.
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The Soviets deployed the A-35 in the late 60’s/early 70’s.
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ERA was developed by the Soviets and the West Germans… and used by the Israelis in 1982.
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Yes, in the ultimate analysis, it is always sad that weapons have to be deployed.
Back to the OP.
Battle of Calibria and Battle of Matapan 1941. First use of Aircaft Carriers in a fleet action as offensive units.
Coral Sea 1942. First Naval battle fought entirely by aircraft carrier.
Europe 1943, the first use of guided weapons. Destroyed the Roma
Burma 1944/1945. The first use of helicopters in combat
Korea 1950, the first example of jet versus jet fighting
1962. The First successful intercept of an aircraft by a SAM
1965 Indo-Pak war. The first use of Mach 2+ aircraft in interception. Also the first major use of ATGM’s…by both sides.
1967. The first successful use of Anti Ship missiles sinking the INS Eliat
1982. The first sinking of a ship by a nuclear submarine.
Not even God could beat the Philistines with their chariots of iron, around 1200 BCE.
And not exactly a weapon, but technology that transformed the battlefield, was the stirrup, which allowed riders to put the weight of their horse behind their lance thrusts. The date of its first effective use is disputed, but it was probably after the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
1940 Battle of Britain, RADAR (existed and used prior but arguably it was the most famous component of that battle. Whether it was actually the most important component is another discussion altogether)
The Second Taiwan Strait Crisis, and the first air-to-air missiles
I don’t think there are going be many straightforward, undisputed examples with the OP as is.
The first time a particular weapon was used in combat may be obscure or simply not documented at all.
OTOH the first notable use of a weapon in a significant battle is more clear-cut but not technically “new”.
Elephants were reportedly used in the 1st Punic War against Roman armies in both Sicily
and North Africa. They appear to have been successful only in the North African campaign.
Hannibal is not known to have employed elephants in battle in the 2nd Punic War in Spain
or Italy. He is supposed to have had them in his train during the march from Spain to Itlay;
it may be none survived the march over the Alps. He did use them, without decisive effect,
in the war’s final battle at Zama.
Zama: Live pigs wrapped in straw and pitch, and then set on fire, to panic the Carthiginain elephants, right?
Possibly the use of the Molotov cocktail in the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union. The Molotov wasn’t really new or unique except for the name though.
The Me-262 was the first operational jet fighter, in WWII. Can’t think of some particular battle where it was introduced.
Helicopters were flying in WWII, and used by the US military in Korea, though I don’t believe they were armed. The navy began developing helicopters for anti-submarine combat, but AFAIK they’ve never actually been used in that capacity in a real war. In Vietnam they were used extensively as transports, and many had door guns added. I believe the first purpose built armed helicopter designed as a weapon from scratch and used in combat was the Huey Cobra, used in Vietnam and some are still in service today.
Maybe we ought to talk about what constitutes a weapon. The UAVs you’re referring to here were not armed. They were target drones, decoys used to identify radar sites which were then attacked by other forces.
Someone mentioned radar during the Battle of Britain. Again, a technology used to identify and locate an enemy, not engage it.
Are these weapons?
I don’t get this, I thought the defenders in the battle of Visby were untrained, underequipped farmers… 
Probably true, though the Soviets may have been working on something. Until Vietnam where we enjoyed total air superiority the helicopter was considered a sitting duck in combat. Even now they’re unlikely to be deployed in combat against a force that can deploy conventional fighter aircraft.