Location: Jabal Hamrayn, 200km north of Baghdad

Short Descriptor: Development of long-range artillery, possibly for BW projectiles

Details:

The Iraqi Supergun program was developing long-range projectiles for both 350mm and 1,000mm caliber weapons. The drawings of various designs for the 350mm device depict a projectile with a guidance and control section, control surfaces on the fins, and a payload of around 20kg. Plans existed for a 1,000mm caliber weapon that would have had a longer range, and a payload greater than 100kg. Iraq denies that there was any connection between the BW program and that of the Supergun. This project, like the BW and CW programs, was managed solely by the Military Industrial Corporation (MIC). Like the BW project, no objective or planning has been acknowledged. The development of this weapon system was well advanced, with several sites being used and plans prepared for new and more versatile weapons. The intended purpose of this weapon has not been revealed. A long-range delivery system, with its guided projectile, capable of delivering relatively modest payloads suggests the use of very potent warheads, such as CW or BW agents, or even radioactive material. The range and payload delivery are of a similar order to those of the Al-Hussein. Without a more comprehensive disclosure by Iraq, the possibility that this weapon was being developed for the delivery of a BW payload cannot be ruled out.

Other Information:

The first prototype was seen by UN inspectors at Jabal Hamrayn, 200km north of Baghdad. The Supergun consisted of a single prototype of a 350mm gun for trials purposes and two prototypes of a 1000mm gun. The 350mm gun started firing trials several years ago and was used only for ballistic research. It was discovered assembled on the side of a mountain but had not been used for some time. Walter Somers of the United Kingdom supplied 120m of 350mm diameter tubing to Iraq with deliveries running from mid-1988 to early 1989. At Iskandariyah, UN inspectors found a number of components for the 100mm diameter Supergun stored in the open. UK firm Forgemasters was awarded a contract to supply 52 sections of 1000mm diameter pipe, but the last eight were prevented from being shipped to Iraq by UK customs. Two separate Superguns had been planned, each 52m long, but were not assembled. In addition to the sections, which were held together by steel bolts, parts of the recoil system and breech were also discovered. [1]

In 1990, British customs investigators with Christopher Cowley (one of several SRC-International staff assigned to the project) understood that there were two barrel systems involved in Project Babylon: the 39-inch tube, and a smaller, 350mm version. With a 27.5-m barrel, "Baby Babylon" would have been capable of hurling a heavy shell several hundred miles. In a conversation aired 13 February 1991 by CBS's French-language public affairs program "Le Point," Cowley told interviewer Ann-Marie Dussault that the 39-inch gun was to be stationed on a mountainside in northern Iraq, in a location about 70 km northwest of Mosul. Strongly denying any weaponry use for Babylon, Cowley said that it would be pointed south, to fire research shells into a test zone in north-central Saudi Arabia. The distance between the given firing point and the target zone measures out at approximately 470 miles. [2]

...Source was asked if he had any knowledge of the so-called "supergun," and he replied that he had heard about a "gun of the depths" from western media reports. [3]

...The 350mm projectile for the Supergun is intended for use with BW agents. [deleted?] Based on calculations we have done for Iraq's Scud-type missiles, we estimate that this quantity of anthrax spores could, under ideal circumstances and meteorological conditions, lethally contaminate an area of several hundred square kilometers. [4]

	Updated February 2006