Word: cannoned
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...strategic air attack, has been tamed and reshaped as a major new tactical weapon for the U.S. Army. Its bulk has been compressed and slimmed into a workable artillery shell. The shell can be fired with pinpoint accuracy by a new highly mobile atomic artillery piece. The atomic cannon is already in production...
Lineal Descendant. The A-cannon is not designed to replace divisional artillery, the 105-mm. and 155-mm. howitzers. It is what is known as "Army" artillery, a lineal descendant of such famous oldtime corps performers as Long Tom and Big Bertha, a type of heavy artillery brought to the front only for such special purposes as siege action or destruction of an enemy massed for a river crossing. Its use against lesser concentrations would be militarily ineffective as well as prohibitively expensive. At long range the big gun is four times as accurate as the average field piece...
From a distance, the big A-cannon assembly looks like a loaded railroad flatcar, with engine cabs at both ends. When it is ready to leave the road to go into action, the two cabs rev up to a deafening roar and swivel around to push the flatcar sideways (see cut) across the terrain to firing position. Once in position, the cabs help lower the gun bed to the ground and then pull out from under...
Groundman's Answer. The critics of atomic artillery, who have battled Collins for the past two years over his expensive A-cannon project, hold that the A-cannon can do nothing that an airplane can't do by dropping a tactical atomic bomb. Collins answers back with a seasoned groundman's vehemence. In bad weather, airplanes just can't perform tactical missions within the cramped confines of the battlefield. And even in good weather, one miscalculation by an atomic bombardier could panic a whole division on his own side...
Collins and his artillery experts admit that the A-cannon is just an interim weapon. Their long-range plans revolve around ground-to-ground guided missiles, another Army development project. These are still too inaccurate for any kind of close-in use. But when the aim is perfected, the missiles will doubtless outdate atomic artillery because they will exceed artillery's hitting power, and exceed its reach as well...