On 13 August, inspectors from the UN were able to clamber over the pieces
of Iraq鈥檚 next generation of 鈥榮upergun鈥� at Al Iskandariyah. At 1 metre in
diameter, the barrel of the proposed gun is more than twice as wide as that
of its more famous predecessor.
Two days earlier, the inspectors had examined the original supergun
at a site 200 kilometres north of Baghdad. The barrel is 52.5 metres long,
with an inside diameter of 350 millimetres. According to Iraqi engineers,
it could shoot a projectile 250 kilometres. But it could not be aimed, because
the barrel is immovable.
Projectiles are launched up the supergun鈥檚 barrel with packs of explosives
separated by bundles of wood. The wood bundles prevent the simultaneous
detonation of the separate packs of explosive charges. Instead, they go
off in sequence like rocket stages as they pass up the gun鈥檚 extraordinary
long barrel.
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