[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Oooooh.

ping for future.

[Greg F]

Wow. Just wow. I want one.

[Greg F]

The solution to noise pollution?

[chaos_5]

[catbertz]

Oh Yeeeaa! This type of weapon actually gets me excited. Once the problems are worked out, this provides so many advantages it's crazy.

Same goes for all the unmanned surveillance, and the future possibility of unmanned fighter swarms and bombers.

[Hexenhammer]

Ooh sweet.

/waits patiently for the hand held version

[RightWhale]

significantly more poke

If they can get the air out of the barrel before they fire they can also get some pull along with their poke.

[LambSlave]

"Ever since the Battle of Midway, sailors have reluctantly been forced to accept that aircraft win sea battles, not ships. But railguns might demote aircraft carriers from their current big-dog naval status and bring in electric dreadnoughts as the capital ships of tomorrow, able to sweep the skies of pesky aircraft or missiles as soon as they dared show themselves above the horizon."

This comment is very interesting. I've often remarked how odd it seems, given prior naval history, that the evolution of naval warfare led to the carrier as the ultimate capital ship. I was just thinking that if we developed a high power laser or other beam weapon which requires very large energy supply, that the balance could shift back to the battleship as queen of the sea. The rail gun would have the same effect, and this technology should be pretty mature by now, given the decade(s) that have passed since the first demonstration of the tech.

[Dominick]

Possible rate of fire in a gauss gun is much much higher.

This of a machine gun that fires silently, at targets that are over the horizon. Any current conducting object can be used for projectiles.

With proper design, they can fire a lot of very cheap metal.

At Mach 7, most of this will be very very hot and probably just as hot as a exploding warhead.

[Mr Apple]

Aim it at the U. S. / mexico border.

[ClearCase_guy]

I don't imagine this will be quite ready for the first Zumwalt destroyer, but these babies were designed to be able to take advantage of this technology when it does become available.

[wolfcreek]

Test it on Imanutjob. See if we can shoot a BB up his butt and out his ear.

[DannyTN]

"80 megawatts "

Imagine the fish you could catch by shocking them with that.

[SampleMan]

The lack of exploding warheads could offer a chance to deliver more surgical strikes, too.

Not really. E=1/2 mass X velocity squared

Expect a 40 foot crater.

The beautiful thing is that the firing ship can carry twice to three times as much ammo in the same space and has no explosive, damage control worries. Well, that and hitting something 200 miles away with a suborbital, guided munition travelling 5-10 times faster than the fastest bullets.

[Red Badger]

64 MEGAJOULES?!?!?!?!?!...........

[NYFriend]

All this so future captains will really be able to say “divert engine power to weapons systems”?

[blackdog]

But what I want to know is how much does this weapon cost each firing as far as carbon credits?

[Snickering Hound]

"No word on sharks with laser beams?"

[John123]

Am I to understand that these shots will completely knock out any electrical components of the target or is this just another way to fire a hunk of molten metal?

[PapaBear3625]

able to sweep the skies of pesky aircraft or missiles as soon as they dared show themselves above the horizon

Before you can shot it, you have to be able to see it. There's going to be a continuous war between stealth and sensor technology