HARP 16 inch gun

Artillery dominated military ballistics from the earliest use of gunpowder in guns and rockets. It was natural that Jules Verne could only realistically consider a cannon for a moon launch in his prescient 1865 novel, From the Earth to the Moon. Until the first V-2 test flights, it was guns that set the altitude and speed records for artificial objects - notably the Paris Gun of World War I. Even after the rocket established its primacy as a method of accessing space, Gerald Bull of the Canadian Armament and Research Development Establishment began a life-long struggle to use guns for cheap access to space.

In the 1950's Bull pioneered the use of gun-fired models as an economical approach to study supersonic aerodynamics. The model was fitted with a wooden shell, or sabot, that matched the diameter of the gun barrel. After leaving the barrel the sabot would fall away and the model would continue, with high-speed cameras recording its behaviour in flight.

By 1961 Bull had expanded his concept and obtained a $10 million joint contract from the US and Canadian Defence Departments for a High Altitude Research Program (HARP). This was to prove the feasibility of using large guns for launch of scientific and military payloads on sub-orbital and orbital trajectories.

For long range shots a range was established at Barbados, where the payloads could be sent eastward over the Atlantic. A surplus 125 tonne US Navy 16 inch gun was used as the launcher. The standard 20 m barrel was extended to 36 m, and converted to a smooth-bore. In 1962 - 1967 Bull launched over 200 atmospheric probes to altitudes of up to 180 km.

By this time relations between Canada and the United States were strained because of the Viet Nam war. Canada terminated the project. Bull managed to retain title to the assets of HARP, and became a consultant to artillery manufacturers and users. This included work with South Africa, supported by the American CIA. This landed him in jail in 1980 for illegal arms dealing.

After release from prison he moved to Europe and continued to help the world's combatants to modify their artillery to out-range their opponents. This eventually led to a contract with Iraq to build the 'Project Babylon' supergun, designed for launch of payloads into orbit or warheads over extreme ranges. Israel did not consider this a threatening weapon, but Bull's work to assist the Iraqi's in a multistage missile using clusters of Scud rockets was another matter. After refusing to break contact with the Iraqis despite repeated warnings, Bull was assassinated in March 1990. The gun was never completed and was disassembled by the United Nations after Iraq's defeat in the Gulf War.

Another approach to gun-launch was the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory SHARP Light Gas Gun. This was funded as part of the Strategic Defence Initiative as a possible anti-missile defence weapon. Efforts by its project leader to develop it into a space launcher or commercialize it came to nought.

The ability of a supergun to launch low cost satellites is usually the sole attribute discussed when gun-launched satellites are compared to those orbited by conventional launchers. However the supergun's real potential is not only low cost, but also the ability to launch a vast numbers of satellites each year in all kinds of weather. Interest in superguns as weapons of war and as space launchers continues in China and Iraq.

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