SAM-N-8 Zeus, also known as Zeus I, was a project by the
Naval Ordnance Laboratory
The Naval Ordnance Laboratory (NOL) was a facility in the White Oak area of Montgomery County, Maryland. It is now used as the headquarters of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Origins
The U.S. Navy Mine Unit, later the Mine Laboratory at ...
of the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
to develop a guided
anti-aircraft artillery
Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...
shell for launch from guns. Tested in the late 1940s, it was overtaken by advances in guided missile technology.
Design and development
Development of the Gun Launched Guided Projectile - Arrow Shell was initiated by the U.S. Navy's Naval ordnance Laboratory (NOL) in June 1947,
[Friedman 1982, p. 72.] with the intent of developing a guided
subcaliber projectile capable of being fired from the
Mark 16 8"/55 caliber (203mm) guns mounted in the s. In 1948, the project was officially classed as a guided missile, the designation XSAM-N-8 and name Zeus I being applied to the project.
[Parsch 2003]
Zeus consisted of a shell, weighing ,
launched using a
sabot in the 8-inch gun;
[''Bulletin'' 1949, p. 21.] the shell was fitted with stabilizing fins and a small course-correction rocket; the guidance system involved a
radio command being sent to trigger the deflection charge.
Muzzle velocity was expected to be in the vicinity of with the use of standard powder charges in the Mark 16 gun,
and a
single-shot probability of kill
Single-shot firearms are firearms that hold only a single round of ammunition, and must be reloaded manually after every shot. The history of firearms began with single-shot designs, then multi-barreled designs appeared, and eventually many cent ...
(SSPK) of 0.3 at was anticipated, with 0.025 SSPK, the value of a conventional AA round at 5,000 yards, being achievable at .
Operational history
Test firings of the XSAM-N-8 begun in 1948; by early 1950, when the project was transferred from the
Navy
A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It include ...
's missile development office to a purely gun-development project and the XSAM-N-8 designation cancelled,
115 test shells had been fired. An improved Zeus II variant, with full guidance and a
sustainer rocket motor, was projected,
and there were proposals to complete the unfinished
battleship as an anti-aircraft ship with
quadruple turrets of 8" (203mm) guns firing Zeus.
[Friedman 2013, p. 309.] However ordinary guided missiles were proving increasingly satisfactory, and when the U.S. Navy's missile programs were rationalized later that year the Zeus project was cancelled.
References
Citations
Bibliography
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External links
Artist's impression of the USS ''Kentucky'' (BB-66) after conversion to an anti-aircraft ship on Deviant Arts
{{USN missiles
Abandoned military rocket and missile projects of the United States
Artillery shells
SAM-N-08