The U.S. Army Planned to Fight on the Moon. These Were Its Weapons

During the Cold War, the U.S. military studied weapons for a possible base on the Moon: shotgun-style pistols, explosive walking sticks, directional mines, and even nuclear rockets. These were real proposals but none became an operational lunar arsenal. Starting with Project Horizon, this documentary explores how Army planners tried to adapt weapons to low gravity, a vacuum, fragile pressure suits, and the limits of lunar logistics. It also examines unusual 1965 concepts, including the micro gun, spin-fin sausage gun, spring-powered ball gun, gas-cartridge gun, and needle gun, alongside proposals for anti-spacecraft missiles and an electron-accelerator weapon. The plans grew beyond defending a base. Project A119 investigated a U.S. nuclear explosion on the Moon, while Soviet Project E-4 explored a similar demonstration. We also examine the possibility of attacking Earth from a lunar base—and explain why the later lunar mass-driver research was not itself a weapons program. Finally, the story reaches the Outer Space Treaty and Apollo: human footprints and scientific equipment arrived on the Moon, but the proposed weapons did not. CHAPTERS 0:00 The Army’s Explosive Walking Stick 1:02 Project Horizon: A Military Moon Base 2:35 The Lunar Shot Pistol 4:16 The Handheld Directional Mine 5:31 Perimeter Claymore Mines 6:40 Grenade and Canister Launcher 7:41 Nuclear Davy Crockett for Lunar Defense 9:17 Conventional Lunar Rockets 10:04 Anti-Spacecraft Missiles 11:24 The Electron Accelerator “Death Ray” 12:25 Why Laser Guns Weren’t Ready 13:16 The Micro Gun 14:15 The Spin-Fin Sausage Gun 15:15 Sausage Gun Number Two 16:18 The Directed Gas Weapon 16:58 The Spring-Powered Ball Gun 17:57 The Gas Cartridge Gun 18:39 The Gas-Operated Needle Gun 19:40 Project A119: A Nuclear Blast on the Moon 21:17 Soviet Project E-4 22:49 The Plan to Bombard Earth from the Moon 24:26 The Lunar Mass Driver: Not a Weapon 25:55 The Outer Space Treaty and Apollo Which of these proposed lunar weapons would have been the hardest to make work on the Moon? #ColdWarHistory #MoonWeapons #SpaceHistory