Posted on 04/07/2014 6:43:27 PM PDT by mandaladon
The folks at ONR got their expensive rail gun to fire and proved it can work. That being said, is it a practical weapon?
1. What are its power and cooling requirements?
2. Can it fire repetitive shots?
3. What is the time between shots?
4. Do the high electrical current and excessive heat cause damage to the launcher?
5. How do you target the objective of this round at 100 to 200 miles from the launch point? [There is no fire control system on any ship that can do this. Therefore, you’ll need a drone or satellite to do targeting. What if neither is available?]
6. How do you guide the projectile to the target in real time?
7. The JHSV is going to need LOTS of generating capacity to power this beast. I’m also betting it will need major surgery to install the coolant lines (and storage?) for the EMRG. Is the JHSV a suitable ship for the EMRG?
8. The bottom line is this is a “bridge too far”?
9. Assuming we could get this EMRG to work and solving the targeting problem, what are we going to shoot at? Are we going to target a truck, APC, or a tank? A building or bunker? What’s the destructive capability of the EMRG projectile? Why do we need this solution when we have the ability to do the same thing with conventional launch platforms — and cheaper?
The projectile continued 7km downrange after punching through a piece of 1/8" steel at 100 yards.
What would happen to a rail-gun if a powerful EMP went off nearby?
This thing will *cause* EMP!
That’s great.
Now, how do you put the projectile on target at 100 to 200 miles? Is your target moving or stationary? How do you guide it in real time? These are not small problems and we don’t yet know whether the rail gun on the JHSV has the power and cooling ability to make the EMRG work.
A demonstration of the EMRG under ideal conditions is one thing, getting it to work is another thing.
Fire several. A guided missile costs hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars each. A block of iron is a bit cheaper. You could probably throw iron blocks for a year for the cost of a cruise missile.
if the government were in charge of the sahara, there would be a shortage of sand.
LOL! Thank you. That one goes on my clever quotes page.
Targeting will have to be done by a drone or satellite. Both methods have their strengths and weaknesses. Guided projectiles, whether fired from conventional guns or the EMRG are expensive -- and the cost goes up because of the long range guidance (drone or satellite) involved. Individual projectiles -- round for round -- aren't as expensive as a single guided missle, but they're miniaturized cousins.
The guided 5-inch (127mm), 6.1-inch (155mm) or EMRG projectiles are precision guided rounds that are smaller and lighter than missiles — but this does NOT translate into cheaper target killers — unless you compare one missile to one projectile. This comparison is an apple vs. orange duplicitous argument.
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