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An outsized and upgraded cannon spat shells a distance of 40 miles over the Arizona desert Friday, reaching almost three times as far as its previous incarnation. The army is scrambling to boost the range of its missiles and artillery as the number one modernization priority.That program includes an upgrade to a tank-like howitzer, the Extended Range Cannon Artillery, with three times the range and an autoloader, able to launch one round every 6-10 seconds.On March 6, the prototype, with its unwieldy-looking gun, successfully fired two different types of artillery 40 miles during a demonstration at the Yuma testing range...

DAHLGREN, Va.—A warning siren bellowed through the concrete bunker of a top-secret Naval facility where U.S. military engineers prepared to demonstrate a weapon for which there is little defense. Officials huddled at a video screen for a first look at a deadly new supergun that can fire a 25-pound projectile through seven steel plates and leave a 5-inch hole. The weapon is called a railgun and requires neither gunpowder nor explosive. It is powered by electromagnetic rails that accelerate a hardened projectile to staggering velocity—a battlefield meteorite with the power to one day transform military strategy, say supporters, and keep...

'a game-changer' British multinational BAE Systems has developed a functioning prototype of a new artillery piece for the US Navy's testing purposes, and what it does is propel a specially-designed shell to high supersonic velocities (cca 5600 mph) via powerful magnetic rails. At Mach 7, the projectile arrives almost three times as fast as the Navy's current big guns can deliver one, and at an astonishing range of 50-100 nautical miles (!) The new technology is now undergoing testing in Virginia. Considering that today's naval artillery can reach only about 15 mi -and that long-range cruise missiles poke-along at...

MOSSAD'S KILLING MACHINE COMES TO BRITAIN A killing war between Israel's Mossad and Islamic fanatics came closer this weekend in Britain. The Israeli intelligence agency has sent four members of its kidon assassination squad to this country, to join fifteen other handpicked katsas, its relentless field agents. Their brief is to "disable" any of the "close to 50" British Muslims that the extremist Islamic group, Al-Muhajiroun, last week boasted were ready to carry out suicide missions similar to the one in Tel Aviv. Al-Muhajiroun spokesman, Asif Butt, said the 50 were "primed and ready to go". The threat was sufficient...

Way down a dusty gravel road, tucked deep in Redstone Arsenal, right at the border's edge, hails a story that verges on legend, of a gun so big and so fast that people question its existence. It's said that people often talk about it in hushed tones, almost giving it a mythical feel. The tale has only grown over the years. "Every once in awhile, there will be someone, someone who works on the arsenal, who'll say, 'I hear you've got a big gun down there,' " says Brian Akins, research scientist and range engineer at the Aerophysics Research Center...

Chinese secret agents have made repeated attempts to poach an Australian scientist behind the invention of a high-speed gun that could revolutionise warfare.The gun with its electronic firing mechanism, called Metal Storm, was invented by Mike O'Dwyer, who is based in Brisbane. He claimed this week that Chinese government agents offered him more than $100 million to move to China and work on the gun. "What I was expected to do in Beijing was to divulge all the knowledge I had to enable prototypes to be built for the weapons system to be developed," he told Channel Nine television. "[They]...

On the twentieth of January 1963 the big gun roared for the first time as it fired its first test shot into the clear blue sky. This was the first time in history that a gun of this calibre had been fired at an angle of near vertical. From a cloud of flames and smoke a 315 kg test slug was hurtled into the air. With a launch velocity of 1000 m/s and a flight time of about 58 seconds the wooden slug rose to an altitude of 3000 meters before coming down a kilometre off shore. On 21 January...

Saddam Dusts off His Old Super Gun January 9, 2002, 3:39 PM (GMT+02:00) Saddam’s super-cannon of pre-Gulf War fame is making a comeback. In its newly adapted form, the fabled monster gun is designed to fire nuclear, chemical and biological shells at US military targets in the Gulf, Middle East, Red Sea and Mediterranean, as well as targeting Kuwait, Bahrain, Turkey and Israel. This was revealed by DEBKA-Net-Weekly in its last week’s issue.

Saddam acquiring technology for 'long-range supergun' By Kim Sengupta and Rupert Cornwell 10 October 2002 Saddam Hussein has been acquiring the technology to build a long-range "supergun" capable of firing nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, German prosecutors allege. The claim follows the charging of two Germans who allegedly bought cannon drilling equipment and shipped it to Iraq via Jordan four years ago. The investigation into the Mannheim-based firm Alriwo began last year. Hubert Jobski, from the prosecutor's office, said yesterday other arrests were expected, and the two men under arrest could each be sentenced to 15 years if found guilty....

Saddam Hussein has been acquiring the technology to build a long-range "supergun" capable of firing nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, German prosecutors allege. The claim follows the charging of two Germans who allegedly bought cannon drilling equipment and shipped it to Iraq via Jordan four years ago. The investigation into the Mannheim-based firm Alriwo began last year. Hubert Jobski, from the prosecutor's office, said yesterday other arrests were expected, and the two men under arrest could each be sentenced to 15 years if found guilty. "We are convinced that from Mannheim the equipment went to Iraq," said Mr Jobski. "Others...