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U.S. Navy Receives First Industry Built Railgun Prototype

Posted by Unknown on from the killing-pirates-with-magnets dept.

Zothecula writes "Two years after BAE Systems was awarded a US$21 million contract from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to develop an advanced Electromagnetic Railgun for the U.S. Navy, the company has delivered the first industry-built prototype demonstrator to the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Dahlgren. The prototype launcher is now being prepared for testing which is scheduled to take place in the coming weeks."

13 of 277 comments (clear)

  1. Wow by koan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Can you imagine the sound this weapon makes when a projectile exits at 5000 MPH, that alone would terrify the enemy.

    --
    "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
    1. Re:Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      The enemy would be terrified by the noise, but I suspect wouldn't risk much from the gun, as a projectile exiting the barrel (or whatever passes for a barrel in a railgun) at 5000 mph instantly vaporizes when it hits the atmosphere.

      You're thinking of Santa.

    2. Re:Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I work at the facility in question. The sound is comparable (but louder) to a 5 inch shell being fired on the range.

      It is quite capable of startling someone not expecting it from about a km away.

    3. Re:Wow by Baloroth · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Well, TFA says the projectile travels at around 5,000mph leaving the barrel, and has ~32 megajoules of energy, so using KE=1/2mv^2 and some conversion, you get about 13kg (5000mph=2235m/s, [32e6]*2/[2235^2]=m=12.8)

      --
      "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
    4. Re:Wow by PPH · · Score: 5, Informative

      If you've heard it, it means you've survived.

      The projectile will arrive before the sound.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    5. Re:Wow by Captain+Hook · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I'm still unclear on how the rail gun is supposed to take accurate aim on a mobile target (another ship).

      Assuming you are shooting at 80 miles, the projectile is moving at 5000 mph. Flight time is about 58 seconds. Not many large ships can radically alter course in that time to avoid the shot.

      Also, bear in mind that line of sight at sea level +30 meters is about 13 miles. So a target ship without the ability to see beyond the horizon (either Airborne Radar or Satellite) only has 9 seconds from when the slugs appears above the horizon to impact, and thats assuming the radar picks it up the moment it's above the horizon.

      The US already has missile technology which does a very good job.

      Missiles can be shot down or guidance interfered with.

      There is also an issue with missiles and shells being filled with explosives which if detonated within your ship at the very least significantly damages if not out right sinks it.

      Railguns are shooting a solid slug of metal. There is no propellant to be ignited, it's intrinsically safe for the firing ship to handle. The slugs are also far more compact than the missiles or shells because of the lack of propellant so a warship can leave port carrying far more ammo which means less resupply at sea is needed.

      --
      These comments are my personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the other voices in my head.
  2. Re:Where's Gordon Freeman when you need him? by BergZ · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wasn't he supposed to be in the Test Chamber half an hour ago?

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  3. Re:Pop Up by osu-neko · · Score: 5, Funny

    There is an annoying popup on TFA. Reload to temporarily defeat it.

    Hmm, I don't see any popup. I suspect your NoScript settings are set to something insane, like "not installed"...

    --
    "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
  4. What's this? by dpilot · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sounds like another government rail subsidy to me. Or is it really "TSA meets Amtrak"?

    (I'm preparing to get strafed.)

    --
    The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
  5. Re:In Mother Russia.... by Nadaka · · Score: 5, Funny

    "When all you have is a railgun, everything starts to look like a smoking crater."

  6. Re:light gas gun by rahvin112 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The beauty of the railgun and why the Navy is so aggressively pursing them is that explosive based weapons are very dangerous at sea under counter attack. The most secure portion of the ship is often the munitions storage area for this reason as a properly placed round can blow the bottom out of the ship by igniting the munitions stored.

    The railgun does away with the whole bit, the munitions are rods of metal and the propellant is electricity. Without all the powder storage you can either dramatically reduce the size of ship and crew or dramatically increase the number of rounds deliverable before restocking. Finally the restocking ships aren't going to be carrying combustible munitions. A round 1/4 the size of the largest battleship guns fired from a railgun will do nearly 100 times the damage.

    The goal of the Navy DDX program is ships with 1/4 the crew size, 10 times the firepower and a significant reduction in profile (stealth). Imagine being able to field twice the number of ships for half the cost and a single ship has more firepower than 10 current models.

  7. Re:WTF submitter?! by BisexualPuppy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Probably because most people don't follow either the military or gun culture on /. sad but true.

    There are so many things I can learn with passion, and killing people is not one of them. Is that sad ?

  8. Re:WTF submitter?! by couchslug · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No. You can delegate it and pretend the world runs on rainbows and unicorns.

    --
    "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."