Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!military
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: no subject (file transmission)
Message-ID: <1990Sep2.060718.2456@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 2 Sep 90 06:07:18 GMT
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 25
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: sun!sunburn.West.Sun.COM!gtx!qip!john (John Moore)

Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Atomic Cannon

G_AHRENDT@VAXA.CC.UWA.OZ.AU (Gunter Ahrendt) writes:
]I was wondering if anyone might be able to give me some (any!) information or 
]references to the Atomic Cannon the US Army was testing in the Desert in the 
]late 40's or early 50's?
]
]I think it only ever fired one shot ;)
]
]All i've seen was some footage of this HUGE cannon with a enormous amount of
]recoil blast it's projectile into the sky and seconds later a mushroom in the
]distance... 
]
I can't give you much in technical details. However, my father worked
on testing around that time, and he said the general scientific opinion
was that the device was ridiculous. Apparently it was a large, rifled
artillery piece that had high accuracy. THe scientific opinion was
that it was a waste, because the yield was high enough that they
didn't need accuracy (and the attendent complications). Anything that
could hurl a projectile in the general direction would have been sufficient.