An inexpensive solution for quickly launching military satellites into space.

• Author: Oberholtzer, William I.
• Position: Viewpoint

During a recent trip to Yuma Proving Ground, in Arizona, I passed a unique looking artillery piece in a remote area of the installation. It has an extremely long barrel and appeared to be anchored in a concrete abutment. Having more than a passing interest in ordnance I made some inquiries as to origins and purpose of the gun.

What I had stumbled across, on that hot desert day, was one of three unique guns that had been part of a very ambitious undertaking called the "High Altitude Research Project; or HARP. The brainchild of Jerry Bull (of "Iranian Super Gun" fame), HARP was an innovative approach to putting satellites in space. HARP started out as a joint project between the Canadian Armaments and Research and Development Establishment (CARDE) and the U.S. Army's Ballistic Research Laboratory and Aberdeen Proving Ground to study the upper atmosphere. It later evolved into a project to economically place satellites into orbit, as well as the basis of improved and extended range artillery.

HARP consisted of two 16-inch naval guns--one welded atop of the other with reinforcing cables and stiffening bars running the length of both barrels. The barrels were affixed to a breach anchored into a heavy concrete and steel ground-mount capable of withstanding the detonation of nearly 1,000 pounds of propellant. From a firing point located in Barbados, the HARP could send a projectile, called a Martlet, to an altitude of 180 kilometers, a record that stands today. Had it not been for political infighting and inter-service rivalries, Bull would have, undoubtedly, been successful in developing a cannon-launched satellite delivery system. Fortunately good ideas tend to stand the test of time.

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Fast-forward to the 21st century, one of the original members of Bull's research team retired Col. John X Frost, an armaments design engineer, has lots of ideas about how to adapt HARP to current military needs.

Satellites are one of the technological pillars of our modern society. They facilitate the use of products and services that were science fiction just a few decades ago. Today, they have become an intricate part of our day-to-day lives.

Satellites are an indispensable part of daily military operations. Whether relying on them for global voice communications, GPS, uplinks to unmanned aerial vehicles, vectoring precision munitions, troop emails, or a laundry lust of applications, the military-has nearly maxed-out the capabilities of its...