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| Science & Technology |
| Navy's Railgun Fired 1000 Times |
| 2011-11-03 |
| The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Materials Testing Facility announced that it has fired its electromagnetic railgun 1000 times and reached a materials testing milestone toward the deployment on warships. Many of the shots were fired to research and test different barrel designs and to evaluate the damage generated by the gun. The first shot was launched more than four years ago, in March of 2007, and the railgun has since been enhanced from an energy level of 0.5 megajoules to currently 1.5 megajoules. In comparison, "a one-ton vehicle moving at 100 mph has approximately one megajoule of kinetic energy," the U.S. navy explained. The railgun developed by the Navy launches and accelerates hundreds of conductive projectiles along pairs of metal rails using the effects of a strong magnetic field. The Navy railgun is rumored to accelerated a 7-pound projectile to a speed of 2.4 km/s or 5400 mph. However, rumor has it that velocities of up to 3.5 km/s have been achieved. In comparison, projectiles fired from an M16 rifle top out at 0.9 km/s. Navy officials said that the range of a railgun is up to 20 times greater than that of conventional weapon systems. A projectile could reach a target 290 miles away in less than 6 minutes and impact it with massive force. The idea is to potentially replace extremely expensive Tomahawk missiles, at least in some scenarios. "A railgun weapons system must be able to launch hundreds of projectiles and withstand extreme pressures, currents and temperatures," said NRL Commanding Officer, Capt. Paul Stewart in a prepared statement. "Today's firing of the one-thousandth shot demonstrates Navy researchers are steadily progressing toward achieving that goal, developing a more effective and efficient future ship combat system." They are shooting for a 10-shots-per-minute rate, with accuracy of 5 meters within a 200km range, and destructive force just slightly greater than a conventional 1,000lb bomb. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #18 Recoil is actually a good question. "The seat of the recoil force is still debated. The traditional equations predict that the recoil force acts on the breech of the railgun. Another school of thought invokes Ampère's force law and asserts that it acts along the length of the rails (which is their strongest axis). The rails also repel themselves via a sideways force caused by the rails being pushed by the magnetic field, just as the projectile is. The rails need to survive this without bending, and must be very securely mounted." This is also a factor in the type of rail gun being used, as this would apply to a traditional rail gun. But there is also a hybrid rail gun that uses a thin conductive film behind the round. As the vast current flows through it, it is turned into a conductive plasma that is more like traditional explosives, that starts the round moving forward, and then the traditional rail gun accelerates the round even more. This most definitely gets a lot of more typical breech recoil. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-11-03 19:23 |
| #17 > Do these things have recoil? Have Newton's Laws of Motion been over-turned while you were napping? |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2011-11-03 18:13 |
| #16 Do these things have recoil? |
| Posted by: Speamble Wittlesbach8094 2011-11-03 16:53 |
| #15 any 2 reactor ship should work... |
| Posted by: Water Modem 2011-11-03 15:58 |
| #14 There is a difference between muzzle velocity and explosive power. I wonder if they could bring the Iowa class back, put a nuke in it and automate it for a smaller crew and mount railguns. A large mass platform might be handy. |
| Posted by: Speamble Wittlesbach8094 2011-11-03 15:02 |
| #13 Ignorant question perhaps, but is it strictly a straight shot kind of a weapon or can a trajectory be put on it like artillery? |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2011-11-03 14:52 |
| #12 each shot more than equal to a 1000lb bomb.... 33MJ at the muzzle is the energy in one gallon of gasoline or 17 pounds of TNT. That's about 2/3 the HE in a 155mm HE shell. |
| Posted by: Eohippus Phater7165 2011-11-03 14:26 |
| #11 A flotilla of ships each with a rail gun firing 10shots/min, each shot more than equal to a 1000lb bomb.... So 1 gun in one min = 5 tons of HE. 10000/5 = 2000 min with one gun = Hiroshima explosive power 2000/20 = 100 or 100 guns in 20 mins = Hiroshima It' could be a real game changer just on tonnage. Now that it is very accurate hi-velocity tonnage with quick time on delivery and no explosive power in the shell itself makes it a total game changer. |
| Posted by: Water Modem 2011-11-03 14:03 |
| #10 Maybe time to bring some of the battleships back out of retirement and load a mess of these things on them. |
| Posted by: Laurence of the Rats 2011-11-03 12:45 |
| #9 Of course the real question is could a single railgun-equipped ship bring down the Roman Empire? |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2011-11-03 11:44 |
| #8 Artillery is back as the Queen of Battles. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2011-11-03 11:23 |
| #7 Imagine a flotilla with these laying siege to an inland city, block by block. |
| Posted by: Water Modem 2011-11-03 10:53 |
| #6 I saw the video and aftereffects of such a round hitting a decommissioned M-1 Abrams tank. Holy macanarsels. At that velocity, it actually engages the surface tension of steel, shattering the tank like it was made of glass. Comparatively, like a rubber ball dipped in liquid nitrogen, that shatters. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-11-03 09:23 |
| #5 Loosely translated as 'Speed kills'? |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2011-11-03 07:16 |
| #4 The logo at the end of the video reads "Velocitus Eradico". :-) |
| Posted by: gorb 2011-11-03 06:36 |
| #3 OTOH what USN Warships would those be, given ...?? * TOPIX > TWELVE US WARSHIPS FACE AXE DUE TO BUDGET BATTLES. Nine "Ticonderoga"-class CGS + three "Whidbey Island" Amphibs planned for cut in FY 2013 + 2014. SELL THE "TICONDEROGAS" TO INDIA??? AFAICS "Motherships", all-purpose + Drone, BMD-capable, remains the future for the USN + "OWG/Global Navy" [OWG Task Force] in this era of GWCC + the 21st century??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2011-11-03 02:34 |
| #2 The railgun will be like the tank in the 20th century. Totally changing warfare. This is a practical 'rods from the gods' Needs lots of power though. Only really feasible with a nuclear reactor. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2011-11-03 01:18 |
| #1 32 megajoule railgun shot |
| Posted by: Eohippus Phater7165 2011-11-03 00:36 |