FASTER THAN A SPEEDING BULLET (A First Look at America’s Supergun)

The Wall Street Journal ^ | May 27, 2016 | Julian E. Barnes

[sukhoi-30mki]

DAHLGREN, Va.—A warning siren bellowed through the concrete bunker of a top-secret Naval facility where U.S. military engineers prepared to demonstrate a weapon for which there is little defense.

Officials huddled at a video screen for a first look at a deadly new supergun that can fire a 25-pound projectile through seven steel plates and leave a 5-inch hole.

The weapon is called a railgun and requires neither gunpowder nor explosive. It is powered by electromagnetic rails that accelerate a hardened projectile to staggering velocity—a battlefield meteorite with the power to one day transform military strategy, say supporters, and keep the U.S. ahead of advancing Russian and Chinese weaponry.

In conventional guns, a bullet loses velocity from the moment the gunpowder ignites and sends it flying. The railgun projectile instead gains speed as it travels the length of a 32-foot barrel, exiting the muzzle at 4,500 miles an hour, or more than a mile a second.

“This is going to change the way we fight,” said U.S. Navy Adm. Mat Winter, the head of the Office of Naval Research.

[al baby]

Here I will loan you one “F”

[JohnBrowdie]

ery cool.

[profit_guy]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-first-look-at-americas-supergun-1464359194

[right way right]

Extreme velocityness! Imagine what it would do to that stupid rock in Mecca.

[ClearCase_guy]

I imagine that our newest destroyer, the USS Zumwalt, will be coming in for refitting real soon now.

[Riley]

I’m shocked that someone makes a camera that can track that thing in flight

[arthurus]

Lend. Loan is a noun and only a noun.

[Seruzawa]

Goodbye aircraft and armor. Say hello to infantry battles.

[arthurus]

a bullet loses velocity from the moment the gunpowder ignites and sends it flying

a bullet loses velocity from the moment the round leaves the barrel.

[Boogieman]

One drawback: it requires a whole lot of electricity to power something like this.

[Iron Munro]

The problem is that the aliens invading the USA aren’t arriving from other worlds in a vehicle you can shoot down with a space age weapon.

They are arriving here by walking across the border or flying in on commercial airliners.

[right way right]

Journalists. Dey never got it right.

[Billthedrill]

I don’t care how fast it is, I still won’t be able to hit a chukar.

[Iron Munro]

Another advanced weapon concept with its roots back in Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI).

[Flick Lives]

4,500 MPH is almost Mach 6! Movin’!

[PLMerite]

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/loan

[Sergio]

Or before if all the propellant is burned before the projectile leaves the barrel.

In another historical artillery note. I wonder if rail-guns will now be described by the weight of the projectile they launch, as used to be done with British cannon. The rail-gun described in the article would be a 25 pounder.

[Doogle]

Thanks to Hilda, the Russians already have the specs

[mountainlion]

One drawback: it requires a whole lot of electricity to power something like this

25 megawatt of power is enough to light a city.