Here’s a missile I’ve not seen too much on… the early/mid-1950’s “Cannon Ball” developed by Johns Hopkins for the Navy and the Army. Some aspects of its design are suprisingly modern-looking, while some are creakingly antiquated. It was a spherical anti-armor missile (apparently also adapted for anti-submarine use) with an impressively large shapred charge warhead. The solid propellant seems to have been wrapped around the central cylindrical core formed by the warhead, and contained within the spherical shell. A single propulsion nozzle was located off-axis; three sets of control jets (attitude control thrusters) were located equidistant around the perimeter.
It was controlled remotely via radio. Sadly, the control system seems to have been a nightmare… there were *two* pilots, one controlling pitch, the other yaw. They guided it by watching the smoke trail its rocket left behind.
The basic design is very similar to modern hit-to-kill anti-missile systems. Simply replace the warhead with an optical sensor and some computers, and you’ll be pretty much there.
<> A bit more on Cannonball is here.
7 Responses to “Cannon Ball!”
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I think this one was doomed from the start, but TOW seems to work pretty well and this might be a long way up its family tree.
Jim
What an abomination. I could just see this being pitched by some yoyo as “the next BIG thing”. Like Copperhead, another abomination the Army wasted far too much money and effort on.
Wire guided is definitely cheaper than fire&forget, but each system has its drawbacks.
I don’t get it – what is the advantage of a spherical shape for a missile in the atmosphere or underwater? Spheres are not exactly known for low drag…
>Spheres are not exactly known for low drag…
They are, however, known for being able to take high internal pressures. However, with as many penetrations as this design has, I’m also at a bit of a loss.
For ASW work the spherical design might have helped a stable transition between air and water….I know shotgun pellets and musket balls are way better than regular bullets for shooting at underwater targets. Regular bullets simply disintegrate or ricochet.
The spherical shape may have been chosen to maximize the diameter of the shaped charge warhead to increase penetration depth. That being said, a sphere is still a weird shape for a missile.
It was the *’50’s*.
They played around with a lot of designs then.
Nowadays, we’d play around with them in X-Plane first and if we got good results with robust numbers then we’d write it up and hunt for a contract.