The Cannonball Missile also known as the D-40 was designed by the Applied Physics Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University under a U.S. Navy contract in the early 1950s. The missile originally started out as an anti-ship missile to be launched from submarines. In 1952 the US Army Chief of Ordnance funded the project for development as an anti-tank missile. Between 1953 and 1956, around 50 D-40 missiles were test fired.