Gerald Bull

Gerald Vincent Bull (March 8, 1928 - March 22, 1990) was an engineer who many consider to have developed long range artillery beyond what anyone else has accomplished. He was a driven man, who moved from project to project always chasing his dream of launching a satellite using a huge artillery piece. To this end he designed the Project Babylon "supergun" for the Iraqi government, during which he was killed (allegedly by Israeli Mossad agents) outside his home in Brussels, Belgium.

Space Research Corporation

However funding for the project was cut in 1967 and Bull, now embittered, returned to his Quebec range, having transferred the project's assets to his own company Space Research Corporation (SRC) setting himself up as an international artillery consultant. Incorporated in both Quebec and Vermont, a number of contracts from both the Canadian and US military research arms helped the company get started.

Related Topics:
1967 - Quebec - Space Research Corporation - Vermont

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Over the next decade SRC worked for a number of governments including the People's Republic of China, Chile, Taiwan and especially South Africa. SRC's main product was a modification of the US-standard 155 mm (6") artillery piece, adapted like his HARP system into a slightly larger smoothbore. The result was the GC-45 howitzer (GC stood for Gun, Canada), firing either NATO-standard 155 mm rounds, or, more typically, a new shell of his own design. The new "pointy" shell offered considerably better aerodynamics than the original; it was spun up by fins on the shell rather than rifling in the barrel, allowing the middle of the shell to be designed for flight rather than "driving". The result was a gun that could outrange the original by up to 50%, while at the same time being far more accurate.

Related Topics:
People's Republic of China - Chile - Taiwan - South Africa - GC-45 howitzer - NATO

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The GC-45 work was paid for by the South Africans, but it has been claimed that Bull undertook the work largely at the urging of the United States Central Intelligence Agency who saw South Africa as a bulwark against Soviet operations in Angola. Used in South Africa as the G5 howitzer, the new guns were put into use near the Angolan border where there was apparently a minor revolution in the war, and Angolan actions were stopped dead.

Related Topics:
Central Intelligence Agency - Soviet - Angola - G5 howitzer

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However at this point Bull was arrested for illegal arms dealing after the administration in the US changed, and he spent six months in a US jail in 1980. On his return to Quebec he was sued and fined again, to the tune of $55,000, for arms dealing. Gerald Bull lived a few years in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, Quebec.

Related Topics:
1980 - Quebec - Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, Quebec

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