[Reeses]

strike targets two hundred miles away - still going at Mach 5

If true this gun could shoot down any orbiting satellite. It will likely require a nuclear power source but it could bury all its nuclear waste by shooting it into the Sun.

[Centurion2000]

nice .... with any luck they will also be able to scale it down to fast reload times to get smaller 3mm bullets or darts moving at mach 7. That will make a 20mm vulcan CWIS seem antiquated.

If it's just straight electricity look for surface warfare ships to turn into floating nuclear reactors with LOTS of ammo capabilities.

[bamahead]

Update: They fired it.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,327205,00.html

Cool pics at link.

[doorgunner69]

ble to shoot hypervelocity projectiles at a blistering Mach 7 and strike targets two hundred miles away - still going at Mach 5

I have a real issue with this claim. I call B.S. No way unless this thing is aimed to escape the atmosphere is it going to coast 200 miles and still be going Mach 5..............

[PapaBear3625]

Here's a Navy Power Point Presentation on the project from 2006

One issue is barrel life. The objective is to get it to 100 shots. Currently you need to replace the barrel after just a few shots.

[In veno, veritas]

Ever since the Battle of Midway, sailors have reluctantly been forced to accept that aircraft win sea battles, not ships.

Poppycock! Give me a U.S. submarine and I'll take on whole surface world. The biggest (and only real threat given a good team) to a submarine is another submarine.

[Rb ver. 2.0]

[dangerdoc]

bump

[Citizen Tom Paine]

Ping for the past. A 16 inch gun will throw the equivalent of a VW for 20 miles and hit a designated target. (It will also go through at least 24 inches of armour plate.) An old sailor remembers gunfire support from ships at sea.

[MattinNJ]

Call me old school, but I say bring back the battleships launching projectiles the size of VWs into enemy cities. What’s the sense of attaining total air superiority without being able to park a row of battleships offshore with impunity.

[Does so]

Wasn’t the Army shooting these things ten years ago, using a plastic projectile?

[Dr.Zoidberg]

But railguns might demote aircraft carriers from their current big-dog naval status and bring in electric dreadnoughts as the capital ships of tomorrow

For this very reason, the wide spread use of railguns will never occur.

If it don't fly, it's not sexy and from everything I've heard, the navy brass is all about sexy.

[Popman]

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.Interesting:

China has since the 80's have an an ambition to build an aircraft carrier fleet to control more of the "blue water" open sea rather than "green water" china sea area and coastal waters.

There has been much speculation on how far the Chinese have come in building an aircraft carrier in secret. Nobody really knows for sure even if they have started

By the time China gets a fleet up and running, it will be obsolete.

Unless of course, whoever is the current Democrat occupant the WH sells them the railgun technology for a nice contribution, in complete violation of McCain-Feingold CFR

[Kevmo]

But there are a lot of problems to be overcome. For one, the gun barrel tends to come apart after just a few shots
***Just a minor adjustment, har de har...

[mjp]

But there are a lot of problems to be overcome. For one, the gun barrel tends to come apart after just a few shots.

bummer

[Enchante]

We demand that all testing and development on this weapon be halted until exhaustive tests can be carried out to determine possible impacts upon dolphins and polar bears. We might be able to deploy this weapon by 2070.

— The Democrap Party —

[grey_whiskers]

Now I know why the govt. labs were doing all the finite element modeling of hypervelocity penetrator impact back in the 90's.

And no, they weren't talking about what happens when my wife meets me after work. :-)

Cheers!

[Liberty Valance]

rail gun ping

[Reeses]

Here's another good video of a railgun test from last year: Railgun test shot