Radical railgun revealed: US Navy's 'Star Wars' weapon that can fire shells at mach 6 [truncated]

UK Daily Mail ^ | February 5, 2015 | Mark Prigg

[C19fan]

A radical new weapon that can fire a shell at seven times the speed of sound has been shown off in public for the first time. Described as 'Star Wars technology' by researchers, the railgun can fire shells at seven times speed of sound, and penetrate concrete 100 miles away. The weapon was on display to the public for the first time at the Naval Future Force Science and Technology EXPO at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.

[C19fan]

Interesting if the railgun vs. developments in hypersonic missiles will be the future. Imagine a railgun battleship armed with a dozen of these. :0

[grobdriver]

I bet that’s a pretty flat shooter!

[exnavy]

Sounds fun.

[Shadow44]

Pretty neat. However, I’m waiting for Ray guns to be invented!

[Grampa Dave]

Hopefully, these star war guns will/can be used against the ISIS serial killers.

[taxcontrol]

A larger or longer version that could lower the G forces, might be usable to launch a payload to sub-orbital and thus be able to strike just about anywhere. While such a payload is not yet a viable option, it would make for one serious weapon system.

[Blood of Tyrants]

100 miles is impressive, but still fairly short range.

[sauropod]

I’d like to see something other than the contractor’s (and the Admiral’s) slick sheet.

[Lee'sGhost]

Your wait is over.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0DbgNju2wE

[Lee'sGhost]

Then there’s this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZPKJ9TEzDA

[snowrip]

It’s great to see the unveiling of this platform, but any weapon is useless without the political will to use it.

[Joe Boucher]

I believe they mostly will be used to destroy satellites.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Indeed. I’ll bet the friction from the surrounding air gets that shell purty damned hot. I wonder what the degradation to the outer skin is like by the time it gets to target? It must take a beating.

[Lazamataz]

.......aaaannnnnnd the Chinese have it too.

[SampleMan]

Pretty neat. However, I’m waiting for Ray guns to be invented!

Already equipping USN ships, as a replacement for the 20mm CIWS. They just don't make that Star Trek warbling noise.

[monocle]

Given Isis’ predilection for trial by fire I think napalm should be our weapon of choice.

[SampleMan]

100 miles is impressive, but still fairly short range.

You won't hit Moscow for sure, but remember that almost half the world's population lives within 100 miles of an ocean.

[SampleMan]

Indeed. I’ll bet the friction from the surrounding air gets that shell purty damned hot. I wonder what the degradation to the outer skin is like by the time it gets to target? It must take a beating.

Long range trajectory is going to put it very high, very fast, the Paris gun trajectory topped out at about 140,000 ft.

These projectiles are not intended to have a warhead, so they can be built to withstand a lot of heat.

[Resolute Conservative]

Plasma rifle in the 40 watt range?

[Blood of Tyrants]

Most of the Iraq and all of Afghanistan is more than 100 miles.