As the pressure builds up, the shell is pushed out of the barrel and down range toward the target.Ī 2018 report on the “thousand mile gun” suggests that it is probably a really big gun that fires a rocket-assisted projectile (RAP). When the gun is fired, burning powder charges create huge amounts of pressure behind the shell. Ordinary artillery guns work by loading an artillery shell, followed by a powder charge, into the gun’s breech. Gerald Bull was assassinated in 1990 and System 350 was never completed. In the late 1980s, Canadian engineer Gerald Bull oversaw construction of the System 350 heavy gun for Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.īuilt into the side of a hill, System 350 had a barrel diameter of 350 millimeters and could lob a 300 pound projectile with 33 pounds of high explosives up to 265 miles. The largest gun ever built, Schwerer Gustav, had a range of 28 miles. The Army’s heaviest gun, the 155-millimeter gun on the M109A6 Paladin self-propelled howitzer, has a range of just 25 miles. Army intends to field a cannon with a range of 1,150 miles is unknown. The Army is set to conduct an early test of a key tech component at Naval Support Facility Dahlgren in Virginia “very soon.” NSF Dahlgren was the home of the Navy’s electromagnetic railgun program, before the gun was shipped out to White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico for additional testing.Įxactly how the U.S. The technology behind the cannon is described as “cutting edge' that's so advanced that the service is not sure if the gun would be affordable. John Rafferty, the service expects the gun to have a range of 1,000 nautical miles-or 1,150 statute miles. The cannon, along with hypersonic weapons, will allow the service to attack long range, strategic-level targets far beyond the reach of existing Army systems.Īccording to Defense News, the Army’s program manager for long range fires, Col. Army is pushing ahead with plans to field a cannon with an astounding 1,000-mile+ range. The cannon, along with Army hypersonic missiles, will allow the service to strike targets far behind enemy lines.The Army is developing a long range cannon with a range in excess of 1,000 miles.

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