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- <text id=92TT0807>
- <title>
- Apr. 13, 1992: The Weapon That Won't Go Away
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992
- Apr. 13, 1992 Campus of the Future
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- GRAPEVINE, Page 19
- THE WEAPON THAT WON'T GO AWAY
- </hdr><body>
- <p>By Janice Castro/Reported by Wendy Cole
- </p>
- <p> Saddam never got a chance to use his Supergun, a powerful
- megacannon capable of hurling chemical, biological or nuclear
- warheads hundreds of miles. U.N. forces dismantled two models
- in Iraq last year, one an incomplete version with a barrel 165
- yards long. But Western intelligence agents in the Middle East
- are nervously tracking another design that is much easier to
- build. Unlike earlier models, the new weapon uses ordinary
- 1/8-in. bridge wire, a steel fiber common in the construction
- of suspension bridges. Spun while red-hot around large-diameter
- steel pipe, the wire strengthens the barrel enough to withstand
- the pressures of firing long-distance shells. Syria, Libya and
- other potential users would have no trouble manufacturing such
- guns.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-