The future is near....................................

[RBL-4NiK8r]

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5itt ... Zx62UJ5OJA

http://www.militarytimes.com/multimedia ... 08railgun/


Navy test fires powerful electromagnetic 'railgun'

4 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US Navy test fired the world's most powerful electromagnetic railgun Thursday, launching a projectile at a velocity of 2,500 meters per second, or 5,600 miles per hour, into a bunker.

The test marks the latest step in US efforts to develop a futuristic naval gun that can hit a target more than 200 nautical miles away with a non-explosive slug traveling at between five and seven times the speed of sound.

Instead of chemical propellants, the railgun uses electromagnetic energy to propel a slug along rails before launching it at a velocity of about Mach 7, officials said.

"The gun is designed to launch these projectiles extremely far, somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 nautical miles, and their impact velocity is extremely high, somewhere in the vicinity of Mach 5," said Jim Boyle, a spokesman for the Office of Naval Research.

"So it is an extremely fast moving, long range system," he said.

The test model bears little resemblance to a gun. Instead, thick black cables plug into the rear of what looks like a long rectangular grill.

That armature holds the rails together as a powerful electric current surges through them, pushing the slug forward.

In Thursday's test, the most powerful charge ever -- 10.64 megajoules of energy -- was sent coursing through the railgun. (A joule is the amount of energy needed to lift an apple a meter straight up.)

It caused the round to accelerate to a velocity of "just slightly over 2,500 meters per second," or 5,600 miles an hour, said Colin Babb, another navy spokesman.

The slug was blasted only about 20 meters (70 feet) into a bunker lined with metal boxes filled with sand.

"At this phase of the project, they are working solely on the science and technology related to the barrel of the gun, so they are interested in how projectiles interact with the rails," said Babb.

"At this facility and in this test, they are not doing anything with regard to range, how far it goes, what the projectile does per se," he said.

Although the 237 million dollar program is still in its initial phases, the navy believes it holds promise for use on future electric powered warships.

A working railgun would allow warships to operate a greater distances from their targets, and improve safety and storage space on board ships by doing away with explosive warheads and propellants.

Some experts believe railguns also might be useful in targeting ballistic missiles.


Yea this looks nice, and you know I was thinking thiswould be the most likely place to find a Rail Gun in the tech tree, for the simple reason its so damn big right now, but think where you might see this in 20-40 years from now.

4nE

[Buginator]

I commented about this on IRC.

Looks nice, now we just have to see how well future tests go, and if they do go well, I think they need to find a few more artifacts so they can 'upgrade' it easier.

[Delphinio]

ok, and where is needle gun then?  ;D

[lav_coyote25]

right here!!!

[RBL-4NiK8r]

Well my guess would be that the Needle gun will be one of the first smaller version of this, something that could fit inside a tank. One thing to keep in mind is that this Rail Gun is a lot more like basic Artty, and the fact it can shoot 200 miles has to make you think what this would be like on a mobile platform on land. I do think the idea of seeing this is a ship first makes a lot of sense, because the power needed can be done with a nuke reactor or two, and using something like that on land right now is not feasible.


4nE

[Chojun]

The problem right now is that the gun shreds itself when it fires.

I don't know how long this has been in development for, but I know it has been for at least 9 years since a guy I talked to on Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama told me about a test run that was done with a smaller version against an M1A1 tank.

[Ziasod]

it's an old version. there building 1 that's 2 generators further like 90 MJ was it? oh it's 64

BAE's new 32-megajoule functional railgun ups the firepower and includes a nice looking barrel.

http://www.dailytech.com/BAE+Sports+Mos ... le9791.htm

It hopes to soon meet the Navy's goal of a 64-megajoule weapon capable of being mounted on a warship.  Such a weapon would draw a current of approximately 6 million amps.

[psychopompos]

Well my guess would be that the Needle gun will be one of the first smaller version of this

a needle gun is a penetrative weapon that works due to a tiny impact area, so doesnt require the same power, though would only be useful against infantry etc.
as even current kinetic armour would stop it with scratched paint.

[kage]

a needle gun is a penetrative weapon that works due to a tiny impact area, so doesnt require the same power, though would only be useful against infantry etc.
as even current kinetic armour would stop it with scratched paint.

depends. 'hardness' is the main factor in such instances of extreme velocity. either the projectile shatters on impact, it ricochets, or it makes some sort of a dent (i'm sure there are a few exceptions). this is where a few thousand $$$ difference in the manufacture of the projectile makes a difference, as when they are composed of a hard enough material, they won't shatter, and all that kinetic energy in the projectile will be focused on an extremely small point, which can slice through even composite reactive armor without a lot of difficulty (weapons like these are what has been termed "the end of tank warfare").

as i (don't) understand it, as such a weapon penetrates the armor and passes through the interior, it creates some kind of shockwave, or vacuum, or something else that, from varying explanations either superheats the interior or rips the occupants apart via an extreme pressure gradient, all of which may be moot, since recent reading suggests that in some of these projectiles, the core material ignites in contact with oxygen, thus if the projectile is designed to have its outer coat shed during penetration, the projectile may indeed be indirectly combustible, but also cause secondary explosions within the target vehicle.

[EvilGuru]

as i (don't) understand it, as such a weapon penetrates the armor and passes through the interior, it creates some kind of shockwave, or vacuum, or something else that, from varying explanations either superheats the interior or rips the occupants apart via an extreme pressure gradient, all of which may be moot, since recent reading suggests that in some of these projectiles, the core material ignites in contact with oxygen, thus if the projectile is designed to have its outer coat shed during penetration, the projectile may indeed be indirectly combustible, but also cause secondary explosions within the target vehicle.

Depleted uranium (U-238, the most common kind) is the material of choice here. Cheap, abundant, extremely dense (much moreso then lead), self sharpening rounds (so it does not go blunt when pushed). It also has an extremely low auto-ignition temperature (and so can burst into flames on contact).

[psychopompos]

as much as that may by useful its generally the kenetic energy the round karries that does the penetrative damage.
and the smaller the impact face the more focussed that is.

your basically looking at vaporising a pin-hole in the armour(and occupant) with needle guns, which is where they differ slightly from a rail gun. which will cause explosive damage similarly to a meteor impact.

needle guns would make current bulletproof armour worn by infantry pointless along with many "battle taxies"(lgt & med APC's etc), at there is nothing we can make to disperse the energy from such a small impact area, 0.5 mm across at most traveling at mach5 to 8+, compared to the 5 - 7 mm across of many popular assault rifle HV & HV-AP bullet types travelling at mach .8 to 1.2 usually.