From: henry@spsystems.net (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: sci.space.tech
Subject: Re: would a gun work on the moon?&
Date: Sun, 7 Jun 1998 05:24:15 GMT

In article <thomsonaEu500E.8LF@netcom.com>,
Allen Thomson <thomsona@netcom.com> wrote:
>Was the supergun prototype under construction in Iraq at the
>time of the Gulf War actually pointed at Israel? More specifically,
>along what azimuth was it aimed?

The gun that was under construction was meant as a satellite launcher, and
as I recall, the site was aimed more or less due east, as you would expect.

The Israelis were not even slightly worried about use of such guns as
long-range bombardment systems, and told Bull so when he asked them before
undertaking the Iraqi project.  Superguns don't make good weapons; they
are too big, too immobile, too conspicuous... and hence too easy to find
and destroy from the air.

(The German WW2 supergun site, which was mostly underground and about as
thoroughly invulnerable as German military engineers could make it, was
spotted and pounded into rubble by Allied bombers -- in the belief that it
was a V-1 launch site -- before the gun development had even finished.)

What did upset the Israelis was when Bull started advising the Iraqi
missile program.  The missiles *were* a real military threat, and Bull was
a world-class expert in hypersonic aerodynamics.  He seems to have felt
that he had no alternative, because the gun project was running behind
schedule and over budget -- endangering his last hope of fulfilling his
lifelong dream by gun-launching a satellite -- and he had to keep his
patrons happy.  The Israelis warned him repeatedly that they found the
missile work unacceptable, and killed him when he persisted.
--
Being the last man on the Moon is a |  Henry Spencer   henry@spsystems.net
very dubious honor. -- Gene Cernan  |      (aka henry@zoo.toronto.edu)

From: thomsona@netcom.com (Allen Thomson)
Newsgroups: sci.space.tech
Subject: Re: would a gun work on the moon?&
Date: Sun, 7 Jun 1998 23:53:06 GMT

In article <Eu61oF.KBx@spsystems.net> henry@spsystems.net (Henry Spencer) writes:
>In article <thomsonaEu500E.8LF@netcom.com>,
>Allen Thomson <thomsona@netcom.com> wrote:
>>Was the supergun prototype under construction in Iraq at the
>>time of the Gulf War actually pointed at Israel? More specifically,
>>along what azimuth was it aimed?
>
>The gun that was under construction was meant as a satellite launcher, and
>as I recall, the site was aimed more or less due east, as you would expect.

I'd reallyreallyreally like to get some documentation for that. It's
what I've suspected might be true based on some slightly indirect
evidence, but substantiation (or refutation) has been bizarrely hard
to obtain.

>The Israelis were not even slightly worried about use of such guns as
>long-range bombardment systems, and told Bull so when he asked them before
>undertaking the Iraqi project.  Superguns don't make good weapons; they
>are too big, too immobile, too conspicuous... and hence too easy to find
>and destroy from the air.

Yeah. Remember Osirak.

[snip]

>What did upset the Israelis was when Bull started advising the Iraqi
>missile program.  The missiles *were* a real military threat, and Bull was
>a world-class expert in hypersonic aerodynamics.  He seems to have felt
>that he had no alternative, because the gun project was running behind
>schedule and over budget -- endangering his last hope of fulfilling his
>lifelong dream by gun-launching a satellite -- and he had to keep his
>patrons happy.  The Israelis warned him repeatedly that they found the
>missile work unacceptable, and killed him when he persisted.

This is what "Arms and the Man" says, and seems to be the most reasonable
candidate explanation for Bull's demise.

That aside (too bad for Bull, but he presumably knew what the risks
were), there is another question, which is the one that interests
me: If the gun was actually meant as a satellite launcher, what
did the Iraqis want with it?  It might have been just a prestige
project, but if not, what would it have been good for?