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Michael H. Standart
Moderator
Username: mstandart
Post Number: 11629
Registered: 12-2000
| | Posted on Thursday, January 18, 2007 - 4:07 am: | 
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From The Free Lance Star:
quote:Normally, new weaponry tends to make defense more expensive. But the Navy likes to say its new railgun delivers the punch of a missile at bullet prices.
A demonstration of the futuristic and comparatively inexpensive weapon yesterday at the Naval Surface Warfare Center at Dahlgren had Navy brass smiling.
The weapon, which was successfully tested in October at the King George County base, fires nonexplosive projectiles at incredible speeds, using electricity rather than gun powder.
The technology could increase the striking range of U.S. Navy ships more than tenfold by the year 2020.
For the rest of the story, go to http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2007/012007/01172007/251373
Cordially,
Michael H. Standart
Equal Opportunity Curmudgeon
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Jack Devine
Member
Username: jackdevine
Post Number: 136
Registered: 1-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, January 18, 2007 - 11:50 am: |
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Railguns have been a regular feature in science fiction and Popular Science-type publications for decades. It sounds like this is still a good distance from a deployable weapon, but it's getting much closer. I can't imagine how they'll develop the terminal guidance package that can survive that kind of launch, but surely it will get done. The article says that the projectiles reach an apogee of 500,000 feet - you could almost go space-shuttle skeet shooting with one of these. |
Michael H. Standart
Moderator
Username: mstandart
Post Number: 11635
Registered: 12-2000
| | Posted on Friday, January 19, 2007 - 6:38 am: |
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>>I can't imagine how they'll develop the terminal guidance package that can survive that kind of launch, but surely it will get done. <<
I'm inclined to agree. The same problems had to be tackled with proximity fuses when they first appeared in World War Two. A typical gun subjected shells to an initial acceleration of around 20,000 gravities and building anything which could take that kind of punishment was no small accomplishment, but the problems were solved.
Keep in mind that some of the ammunition will be solid shot which will do their damage by kinetic energy alone. With the operational weapon expected to produce 64 megajoules of energy, that's quite a punch that somebody on the recieving end will be facing. For ammunition with explosive charges, I would think that insensitive high explosives such as what's known to be used for the trigger assemblies in modern nuclear weapons would be useful. They can take the shock without going off until you need them to.
Cordially,
Michael H. Standart
Equal Opportunity Curmudgeon
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Jack Devine
Member
Username: jackdevine
Post Number: 137
Registered: 1-2004
| | Posted on Friday, January 19, 2007 - 11:53 am: |
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I would think that solid shot would be used most often in short range line-of-sight missions. With a range of up to 250 miles (if the article is accurate) the accuracy can't be very great. It is no longer politically acceptable to level random city buildings, just because we can. At that range, it may not be possible to target anything smaller than a large neighborhood unless a guidance system is provided.
However, for anti-ship use the solid shot would probably have an effect almost beyond belief. Materials behave very strangely at those velocities and I would not want to be on the receiving end. |
Michael H. Standart
Moderator
Username: mstandart
Post Number: 11640
Registered: 12-2000
| | Posted on Friday, January 19, 2007 - 4:40 pm: |
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>>With a range of up to 250 miles (if the article is accurate) the accuracy can't be very great.<<
Throw GPS into the equation and they will be. This is how a lot of smart weapons delivered by aircraft are targeted and the Army has been working on smart artillary munitions for several years with promising results.
Cordially,
Michael H. Standart
Equal Opportunity Curmudgeon
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Jack Devine
Member
Username: jackdevine
Post Number: 138
Registered: 1-2004
| | Posted on Friday, January 19, 2007 - 11:52 pm: |
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With GPS? No question, the accuracy will be there. I was referring to solid shot without guidance, just plain slugs sent out for a ride. At max range, the accuracy would probably be not much better than the old V2's of the '40s.
The Army actually had developed a fairly successful guided artillery shell, but the cost per unit was beyond what was feasible. |
Jim Hathaway
Member
Username: compassrose
Post Number: 228
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Monday, January 22, 2007 - 12:34 am: |
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I wonder if this type of weapon would present any special problems for the launching platform with regard to electromagnetic pulse-
Honjitsu tenki seiro naredomo nami takashi-...
Akiyama Saneyuki
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