Project Babylon
Bull never gave up on the idea of building a gun-fired satellite, but was forced to turn to other work. Through the 1970s and 80s he developed a new artillery piece that dramatically outperformed all others. His design, the GC 45, attracted wide attention. Looking for customers, Bull sold the gun to South Africa (then under the apartheid system) and then to Iraq. He was arrested and jailed in the U.S. for the sales to South Africa, and left Canada after his release to live in Brussels.
He then resumed work with Iraq, convincing them to build a new satellite launcher gun, Project Babylon. Saddam Hussein agreed to fund the project, but only if Bull helped with their efforts to re-design the re-entry vehicle of the SCUD missiles in order to improve range. Bull agreed, making him an enemy of Iran and Israel, the intended target of the longer-range missiles. The March 1990 assassination of Bull (allegedly at the hands of the Israeli Mossad or the Iranian VEVAK intelligence agency) in his Brussels apartment, and the 1991 Gulf War ended the project.
Read more about this topic: Project HARP
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