Outcome
The metal tubes for the barrels and gun cradles were purchased from firms in the United Kingdom, including Sheffield Forgemasters of South Yorkshire, and Walter Somers of Wolverhampton. Other components, such as breeches and recoil mechanisms, were ordered from firms in Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, and Italy. Baby Babylon was completed, and test shots were fired from it, revealing problems with the seals between the barrel segments. However, as those were being worked on, Bull was assassinated in March 1990, possibly by Mossad, halting the project.
Most of the barrel sections for Big Babylon were delivered to, and assembled on, a site excavated from the side of a hill; instead of being suspended by cables from a steel framework as originally planned: calculations had shown that the original support framework would be insufficiently rigid. However, it was never completed.
In early April 1990, United Kingdom customs officers confiscated several pieces of the second Big Babylon barrel, which were disguised as "petrochemical pressure vessels". The parts were confiscated at Teesport Docks. More pieces were seized in Greece and Turkey in transit by truck to Iraq. Other components, such as slide bearings for Big Babylon, were seized at their manufacturers' sites in Spain and Switzerland.
Finally, after the Persian Gulf War in 1991, the Iraqis admitted the existence of Project Babylon, and allowed U.N. inspectors to destroy the hardware in Iraq as part of the disarmament process.
Several barrel sections seized by UK customs officers are displayed at the Royal Armouries, Fort Nelson, Portsmouth. Another section is on display at The Royal Artillery Museum, Woolwich, London.
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