Project X-Ray: When the U.S. Military Enlisted Bats

Meg Godlewski

Tuesday, May 03, 2022 at 12:48 PM ET

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The Mexican free-tailed bat was chosen because of its sheer abundance. [Courtesy: U.S. Department of the Interior]

Key Takeaways:

During WWII, Project X-Ray was conceived to use Mexican free-tail bats, fitted with small incendiary devices, to ignite fires in the wooden and paper structures prevalent in Japanese cities.
The process involved refrigerating bats into hibernation, attaching tiny time-delayed bombs with surgical clips, and loading them into specialized containers for deployment over target areas.
The project faced significant challenges during testing, including bats failing to wake, crashing, or inadvertently setting fire to a U.S. Army air base, demonstrating the impracticality and unpredictability of the method.
Ultimately, Project X-Ray was canceled in 1944, not due to ethical considerations, but as the military's strategic focus shifted towards the development of the atomic bomb.

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During wartime, there is no shortage of experimental airborne weapons. Some, like the so-called dam-busting bomb, are successful. Others, like the one that attempted to turn Mexican free-tail bats into weapons of war, not so much.

How it Happened

In January of 1942, America was reeling from the attack on Pearl Harbor a month earlier, and the military was scrambling for ways to defend the United States.