US Navy Tests Supersonic Heavy Gun Firing Magnetically-Propelled Shells @ Mach 7

Reaganite Republican ^ | March 2, 2012 | Reaganite Republican

[Reaganite Republican]

'a game-changer'

British multinational BAE Systems has developed a functioning prototype of a new artillery piece for the US Navy's testing purposes, and what it does is propel a specially-designed shell to high supersonic velocities (cca 5600 mph) via powerful magnetic rails. At Mach 7, the projectile arrives almost three times as fast as the Navy's current big guns can deliver one, and at an astonishing range of 50-100 nautical miles (!) The new technology is now undergoing testing in Virginia.

Considering that today's naval artillery can reach only about
15 mi -and that long-range cruise missiles poke-along at a leisurely 550mph- it's easy to see how the daunting new weapon is already being called 'a game-changer'. Other uses quickly come to mind, such as the land, air, of sea based missile-defense systems for which it seems manifestly suited: paired to real-time drone/satellite intelligence and laser-guidance, there's not much a handful of these couldn't stop.

Some experts feel the new gun wouldn't even need to employ explosive shells, as a 40' chunk of metal arriving at over five thousand miles per hour should obliterate pretty much anything that happens to be sitting on Point B:

The USN has already spent seven years and $200M+ on development, with further funding still at the whim of the current US administration, be it a new Republican WH or -heaven forbid- another 4 years of steep decline under the Obammunists. 

A second variation on the theme is about to be delivered to the Navy by competing contractor General Atomics. , and while the (first) BAE gun seems to be performing well as a weapon, residual engineering challenges mostly concern building practical durability into such a mind-bogglingly powerful device... a task that is likely to take a few more years. Various cooling systems are being experimented with at this point in the development cycle, the goal being a capability of 10 rounds/min without melting the hyper-stressed barrel... at a range of up to 

200 nautical miles (!)

This of course comes at a perfect time for the US, as China seems determined to build a blue-water navy to challenge American naval supremacy, missile proliferation continues to run rampant, and the Iranian Navy -as always- could use a sinkin.

Yet hard to believe Obama hasn't tried to cancel this thing yet-

so noisy, unpleasant, polluting, and just mean... who needs that

Video/graphics/more at Reaganite Republican

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British Forces News   The Telegraph   LiveLeak    Fellowship of the Minds

[Reaganite Republican]

Personal *ping*

[MichaelP]

Wow! How many Gs do you suppose that shell endures to reach that kind of velocity in that short of distance? It must create one hell of a kick too!

Mike

[MichaelP]

Wow! How many Gs do you suppose that shell endures to reach that kind of velocity in that short of distance? It must create one hell of a kick too!

Mike

[EQAndyBuzz]

They showed this last night on Weaponology. I couldn’t believe the amount of capacitors this thing needs.

Wonder how this would fare against a target like...hmmm... an Iranian nuclear facility.

[reg45]

How do you “aim” at something that is 200 nautical miles away?

[Walkingfeather]

I am not a physics expert as you will see from this question. How far is the horizon? If this thing is firing that fast can you actually lob a shell or would the trajectory cause it to over shoot?

[Reaganite Republican]

“How do you “aim” at something that is 200 nautical miles away?”

Lasers- nothing this expensive flies ‘dumb’ anymore!

[skeeter]

I’d guess this system had less recoil than a conventional one. But I’d hate to be anywhere near it if flooding occurs.

[DonkeyBonker]

Will it take out Fordow in one shot?

[cuban leaf]

It’s like a man made meteor strike. It doesn’t even need an explosive charge. Kinetic energy will do the work.

[agere_contra]

200 nautical miles, wow!

To choose a nautical trouble spot close to my heart, it’s 250 nautical miles from the Falklands to the coast of Argentina. That’s impressive range.

Imagine you started coming under satellite-observed fire at *200 nautical miles* - with a new shell incoming every 6 seconds (!). That would be a bad, bad day.

[reg45]

The launcher (gun) is expensive but the projectiles are just dumb hunks of metal.

[King Moonracer]

Given today’s loose lipped administration, I wonder if the CHinese already have theirs up and running.

[Drawsing]

I am probably wrong, but I didn’t think rail guns had any recoil. The video simulations I saw showed the projectile gathering speed along the rail until it reached the end.

[PapaBear3625]

At 200 miles, you would need a guided artillery shell like Excalibur. The trick will be making electronics and mechanisms able to survive the acceleration.

video of railgun test

[6ppc]

How do you “aim” at something that is 200 nautical miles away?

Smart projectiles. BTW...I think he really meant 40 lb projectiles, not 40 foot projectiles.

[Yo-Yo]

5600 mph x 100 mile range = approximately a one minute flight time.

Hard to hit a moving target with a one minute lead time.

[saganite]

Wonder what the power requirements are for that thing. Would it only be useable on something with a nuke power plant?