Atomic Annie and Two Prime Movers

[dk8019]

I was out at Sandia National Labs for work today, and finally decided to stop by the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. Thought a few of the pictures might be interesting to the group. They have a fairly good condition M65 Atomic Cannon on display out in the yard. I took a number of pictures of the fascinating rig. Enjoy!

 

[Triple C]

Awesome, thank you for sharing!

 

[dk8019]

Another nuke truck, looks like a 800 series 5-ton, is that correct?

 

[Speddmon]

Anybody else notice the condition of those two beauties? Other than some cosmetic issues, I'll bet both of those rigs would fire up and run if called upon. The prime mover for the Atomic Annie has a drip bucket to catch an oil leak, and the rocket launcher still has batteries in the tray.

 

[sigo]

Another nuke truck, looks like a 800 series 5-ton, is that correct?

809 series 5 ton. Great photos thanks for sharing.

I saw that drip bucket as well. A lot of displays I've seen were drained, or had running gear in a horrible state even if the exterior looked good. Those transporters looked ready. I wonder if they would fire up. The M386 transporter looks completely unaltered.

I always thought the M386 was the coolest 5 ton out there. It'd be fun to own one with a rocket in place. I don't think I've ever seen one in private hands.

 

[Bighurt]

Anybody else notice the condition of those two beauties? Other than some cosmetic issues, I'll bet both of those rigs would fire up and run if called upon. The prime mover for the Atomic Annie has a drip bucket to catch an oil leak, and the rocket launcher still has batteries in the tray.

They may fire right up but there are no artillery rounds left for the M65.

 

[Tow4]

They may fire right up but there are no artillery rounds left for the M65.

Did the M65 actually use a cased round; or was it like a battle ship gun that used a projectile and bags of black powder?

 

[KsM715]

I believe it like the battle ship guns. There's one on the hill across the interstate from Ft Riley. It's got a round (welded in place of course) on the loading track. I've got a pic of it somewhere I'll see if I can dig it up.

*edit* You can see the round in the pics in post #1 of this thread: http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showth...went-for-a-drive-today&highlight=Atomic+Annie

dk8019, the one you saw appears to be in much better shape than the one here. Sadly the one here is "outside the wire" and an easy target for vandals. The paint has thousands of marks from people scratching their names into it.

 

[NDT]

Looks like the display was just set up. Were these moved from APG? That is the only gov facility I know of that has been restoring this kind of equipment.

 

[Bighurt]

Did the M65 actually use a cased round; or was it like a battle ship gun that used a projectile and bags of black powder?

The W9 and W19 weapons were both shells. Meaning they were the projectile and that powder charge was required.

As a side note the W23 was developed following the Army's W19 for the Navy, and could be fired from Iowa class battleships.

All have been retired and the fuel recycled.

Actually DOE does a good job of that, the material from the W9 was used in the t-4 Atomic Demolition Munition which is the first of the line, the last being the Special Atomic Demolition Munition (backpack Nuk) which was made from the W54. The W54 was used with M-28 Davy Crockett the smallest in the line of Nuclear Artillery. Not sure I would want to fire a nuclear device from a recoiless rifle mounted on an M38 or M151..

 

[m1010plowboy]

Atomic Cannon Nuke Truck

A fellow Steel Soldier member invited me to the desert to go shooting. I knew I'd passed the initiation test when I made it out with these pictures.

As per the other thread this gear sits near the Yuma Prooving Grounds and I'll add the info signs that go with them.

 

[Speddmon]

Alright m1010...those signs got the shooting/reloading enthusiast in me thinking....

The last sign got me wondering, just how much muzzle energy is created with a 600 Lb projectile leaving the barrel at 2500 fps????

Well, there are 4,199,999.99 grains in 600 pounds, yes that's right 4 million 200 thousand grains!!!!!

Using one of the nifty calculators available on the internet, that equates to 58,302,237.4 lb/ft of muzzle energy created by that blast.

 

[sigo]

But does the 4.2 million grains of projectile weight equate to 58.3 million ft/lbs of muzzle energy, or should you figure propellant weight to calculate muzzle energy? Or do you factor both. I'm a reloading dummy.

Either way, a 280mm shooter has some serious "knockdown" power. Hmmm, 9mm, .45, 12g a or 280mm for home defense? I don't think the indirect fire from 29km out defense will work. Atomic Annie yard art might be enough deterrent even if you can't get ammo.

 

[dezert ratt]

I was checking this one out at the Yuma proving grounds. Very cool looking equipment!

 

[Bighurt]

Either way, a 280mm shooter has some serious "knockdown" power. Hmmm, 9mm, .45, 12g a or 280mm for home defense? I don't think the indirect fire from 29km out defense will work. Atomic Annie yard art might be enough deterrent even if you can't get ammo.

I'm not sure a 280mm equates to neighbor defense, unless you are talking cross town rivals. Bit to much for the neighbor across the street but anyone 5-20 miles from home watch out.

 

[sigo]

Exactly. Talk of muzzle energy is usually reserved for hunting and defense loads. Hence the smiley face.

 

[dk8019]

Anyone know what power train the prime movers on the Atomic Annie was equipped with? They looked like air cooled continental engines of some sort.

I would agree from crawling around under them, they looked like they would fire up. To be honest, it almost looks like they had driven it into position as the tires looked like they had started to fail due to driving into the location. I couldn't find anyone on site that knew exactly.

It would be great to see the beast moving again, but I have a feeling that it will stay were it is forever, but at least it is preserved in some fashion.

 

[m1010plowboy]

Alright m1010...those signs got the shooting/reloading enthusiast in me thinking....

The last sign got me wondering, just how much muzzle energy is created with a 600 Lb projectile leaving the barrel at 2500 fps????

Well, there are 4,199,999.99 grains in 600 pounds, yes that's right 4 million 200 thousand grains!!!!!

Using one of the nifty calculators available on the internet, that equates to 58,302,237.4 lb/ft of muzzle energy created by that blast.

The numbers are hard to imagine which makes this topic real interesting. To put it into a perspective I can understand better, would that be equal to lifting 4,859 deuces?

 

[m1010plowboy]

Anyone know what power train the prime movers on the Atomic Annie was equipped with? They looked like air cooled continental engines of some sort.

That was a 375 horse power Continental after I hunted for the M249 tractor with speeds of 3mph. Lots of info on Atomic Annie out there but I had to dig for that one. We can thank David Doyle for the specs.

 

[Karl kostman]

Great pictures and thanks for posting. There is a vid on Utube where they actually show all this gear in action, the two transporters move the gun out of Las Vegas out into the desert I think it was like 70 miles then they set the gun up and fire a couple conventional rounds through it then they actually fire an ATOMIC round through the gun, it impacts like 26 miles down range, huge flash followed by the giant mushroom cloud. There is a guy talking and describing what is happening through the entire video, its incredible to watch and get a real glimps into the engineering that went into this system! Well worth the 12 minutes!
KK