5 things the US has fired out of cannons besides artillery rounds

High-explosive rounds and metal balls are the cliche options for what to fire out of a howitzer. Discerning cannon users who want to fire less stereotypical munitions should check out these 5 military experiments:

1. Nuclear warheads

There was a time when the American nuclear arsenal was as much about tactical weapons as strategic, and one of the greatest artillery rounds was the M65 which packed a 15 to 20-kiloton nuclear warhead. The U.S. has phased out nuclear artillery rounds, but China, India, and Pakistan still have them.

2. Drones

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Artillery-launched drones are a thing, allowing batteries to launch drones in support of special operators and other ground forces.

Right now, the main drone launched from cannons is the Coyote drone. Coyotes are used in the Navy’s experimental LOCUST project, a plan to launch “swarms” of up to 30 drones from cannons. The drones would work together to achieve tough missions.

3. Space program experiments

Public DomainProject HARP was a US and Canadian program to test space re-entry vehicles by firing them from cannons.

A HARP cannon at Yuma Proving Grounds, Arizona successfully fired a test vehicle on Nov. 18, 1966, to an altitude of 111 miles, almost 50 miles above the boundary of space.

Most of the HARP tests were fired to lower altitudes and carried experimental space parts to see how they acted during descent.