Navy Rail Gun

http://rare.us/story/nope-its-not-science-fiction-this-u-s-navy-railgun-is-the-real-deal/

I <3 railguns

So cool.

Humans are seldom more creative then when they a devising ways to kill each other.

In reply to aircooled:

The very existence of flamethrowers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, "You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done."

Carlin

How berkeleying cool

Cool, cause I am an engineer, but pointless cause I am not stupid. It's just a nice piece of pork-barrel porn. I mean, name me one target, anywhere on the plane,t that the military cant already blow up at will?

Would have preferred to see the money directly fund about a million college tuitions.

Soon.....

NOHOME wrote: Cool, cause I am an engineer, but pointless cause I am not stupid. It's just a nice piece of pork-barrel porn. I mean, name me one target, anywhere on the plane,t that the military cant already blow up at will? Would have preferred to see the money directly fund about a million college tuitions.

I tend to agree with you on spending more money on education than 'splosions. The argument I have heard is that it is actually much more cost efficient than other weapons we have that can deliver similar energy to a target at such a distance. It could potentially be used in place of cruise missiles in a lot of situations, at a fraction of the cost.

From what I've read on these things is that the projectile, or the cost of same is a fraction of what even a dumb shell for a 5 inch gun costs let alone a cruise missile which costs millions per ship for a standard load. Plus these projectiles are much smaller so more can be carried in the same space and (Worse case) if the ship is ever hit or a fire breaks out there is no explosives involved.

If the countless hours of my youth playing Mech Warrior taught me one thing, it's that you're never out of range of a Gauss Rifle or Railgun.

Also jump jets, you need jump jets.

And that right there is why we don't have Ultra Capacitors to run our electric cars. They are all on that ship for the rail gun.

Dr. Hess wrote: And that right there is why we don't have Ultra Capacitors to run our electric cars. They are all on that ship for the rail gun.

You act like that is a bad thing.....I'd rather see them all used to rain kinetic death upon unsuspecting people than power the direct cause of smug.

Quick question: If it's magnetic, why do I see a bunch of fire?

I remember watching some videos a few years back of someone testing a rail gun, but I never thought it would actually make it into reality for anything. Awesome.

In reply to Hungary Bill:

Friction, and the projectile is so fast it's basically igniting the air.

Beer Baron wrote: ....It could potentially be used in place of cruise missiles in a lot of situations, at a fraction of the cost....

I am curious about that. In line of sight, certainly very effective, but line of sight as mounted on a ship is only going to be a few miles (even at 20ft off the surface, the horizon is only 5 miles). You may have noticed, battleships ain't exactly a thing anymore. Cruise missiles are almost always over the horizon self targeting weapons.

I just wonder what kind of energy loss you get at distance. The shell appears to be very super sonic (based on the shockwaves you see in the video), maybe hypersonic, but it's going to have a LOT of drag at those speeds especially if you need to shoot it at a low angle. If you lob it, then it's just a gravity bomb. Probably useful in missile defense, but you still have to be able to aim it very quickly.

In reply to aircooled:

They've made great advancements in computerized targeting for long range artillery. And this things range is around 100mi iirc, and with any arc to the shot, it'll retain its kinetic energy well thanks to gravity

Accelerating to 2 382.03 meters/second in .01 seconds?

I want to know the mass of that projectile.

In reply to Brett_Murphy:

Are they shooting tungsten or depleted uranium projectiles?

Uhhhh, I think the rail gun might already obsolete because the Navy has operational FREAKIN LASER GUNS!

LASER GUN

In reply to pinchvalve:

Nah, lasers aren't straight up death rays yet, and being able to hit something ridiculously hard with something is handy.

pinchvalve wrote: Uhhhh, I think the rail gun might already obsolete because the Navy has operational FREAKIN LASER GUNS! LASER GUN

you need a direct line of sight to use a laser... rail guns can rain death on stuff that is over the horizon..

novaderrik wrote:

pinchvalve wrote: Uhhhh, I think the rail gun might already obsolete because the Navy has operational FREAKIN LASER GUNS!

you need a direct line of sight to use a laser... rail guns can rain death on stuff that is over the horizon..

And a hypersonic tungsten slug will work against reflective targets. And won't be all too concerned if there's a little bit of dust on the firing end.

Obligatory: http://www.colt.com/Catalog/Pistols/RailGun%C2%AE.aspx I want one, just for the name, but GOSH that is a lot of money for a name.

Hmmm...

Hidden in plain sight?