TIME Magazine content is available exclusively for TIME subscribers.

Current subscribers for full access. Not a TIME subscriber? .

Son of the Sergeant York

By the time it was canceled last year, the Army's proposed Sergeant York division air-defense (DIVAD) gun had become a symbol of a procurement process gone haywire. After the Pentagon spent $1.8 billion and ten years developing the tank-mounted, radar-guided gun, field tests showed that it had trouble hitting a hovering helicopter. The fiasco left the Army without a weapon to counter the Soviets' high-performance aircraft and growing fleet of nimble helicopters. Some reformers urged the Army to consider simpler and more reliable weapons, perhaps a version of the existing Rapier or the Roland missile systems. But the Army decided otherwise....

Time.com on Digg

POWERED BY digg

For use in rail of Articles page or Section Fronts pages. Duplicate and change name as necesssary to distinguish.