TEST OF ATOMIC SHELL

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26985, 10 March 1953, Page 9

TEST OF ATOMIC SHELL

Spring Manoeuvres In Nevada (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) WASHINGTON, March 8. The United States Army will fire the world’s first atomic shell from its new 280 mm. cannon during the spring series of nuclear experiments at the Nevada proving grounds. This was officially announced yesterday. The Defence Department and the Atomic Energy Commission announced jointly that an Army unit would fire a new atomic gun using a projectile armed with an atomic warhead.

A Defence Department spokesman said that troops would participate in the test firing as part of a combat exercise to simulate actual combat conditions, so that the troops could become a nucleus for training other men. .He refused to say whether more than one atomic shell would be fired, or whether the gun would be actually manned or fired by remote control. It was possible that another of the huge cannons would fire a conventional shell to obtain comparative data, said the spokesman. The announcement stated that the test wouls not take place at a public demonstration for civil" defence officials and reporters on March 17, the first day of the tests. An Army statement said that the weapon could give ground troops accurate and close support such as had never before been available to them. The gun had a range of 20 miles. The Associated Press states that the explosion of the atomic shell will produce complete destruction more than a mile from the bursting point.