M65 atomic cannon


The M65 atomic cannon, often called Atomic Annie, was an artillery piece built by the United States and capable of firing a nuclear device. It was developed in the early 1950s, at the beginning of the Cold War; and fielded between April 1955 and December 1962, in West Germany with the 7th US Army, South Korea with the 8th US Army, and on Okinawa, Japan.

History

In 1949, Picatinny Arsenal was tasked with creating a nuclear-capable artillery piece. Robert Schwartz, the engineer who created the preliminary designs, essentially scaled up the 240 mm howitzer shell to and used the similarly sized German K5 railroad gun as a point of departure for the carriage. The design was approved by the Pentagon, largely through the intervention of Samuel Feltman, chief of the ballistics section of the ordnance department's research and development division. A three-year developmental effort followed. The project proceeded quickly enough to produce a demonstration model to participate in Dwight D. Eisenhower's inaugural parade in January 1953. The gun was initially designated T131 and the carriage was T72.
The cannon was transported by two specially designed tractors in the same manner as railroad Schnabel cars. Both tractors were capable of independent steering in the manner of some extra-long fire trucks. Each of the tractors was rated at, and the somewhat awkward combination could achieve speeds of and negotiate right-angle turns on wide paved or packed roads. The artillery piece could be unlimbered in 12 minutes, then returned to traveling configuration in another 15 minutes. The gun was deployed by lowering it from the tractors onto leveled ground. The whole gun assembly was balanced on a ball and socket joint so that it could be swung around the footplate. The traverse was limited by a curved track placed under the rear of the gun.
On 25 May 1953, at 8:30 a.m., the atomic cannon was tested at the Nevada Test Site as part of the Upshot–Knothole series of nuclear tests. The test—codenamed "Grable"—was attended by the Chairman-delegate of the [Joint Chiefs of Staff], Admiral Arthur W. Radford and United States Secretary of Defense Charles Erwin Wilson; it resulted in the successful detonation of a shell at a range of. This was the first and only nuclear shell to be fired from a cannon. |Little Feller 1] test shot of a W54 used a Watervliet and [Watertown Arsenal">Watervliet Arsenal">Watervliet and [Watertown Arsenals, at a cost of each. The cannons weighed 83.3 tons, were 84 feet long, 16.1 feet wide, and 12.2 feet tall. Operated by a crew of 5-7 artillerymen, the cannon fired 280mm caliber shells that weighed 600 pounds and had a range of 7-20 miles. The atomic yield of the shells could be anywhere from 15-20 kilotons. They were deployed overseas to Europe and Korea, and frequently shifted around to avoid being detected and targeted by opposing forces. Due to the size of the apparatus, their limited range, the development of nuclear shells compatible with existing artillery pieces, and the development of rocket- and missile-based nuclear artillery, the M65 was effectively obsolete soon after it was deployed. However, it remained a prestige weapon and was not retired until 1963. In that same year, the W48 155mm nuclear artillery shell came into service with the US Army.

Surviving units

Of the twenty M65s produced, at least seven survive on display. Most no longer have their prime movers:
The Virginia War Museum in Newport News, Virginia has been erroneously identified as possessing a prototype of the M65. The weapon at the museum is actually a conventional T1 Gun, one of two produced as part of a separate design program which was abandoned in favor of the T131 Atomic Cannon program. Both the T1 and T131/M65 share T72 carriages.