Rail Gun Pumps Rounds At Swarms

DoD Buzz ^ | Greg Grant

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

One of the more intriguing technologies spotted at this week’s Navy League Sea-Air-Space Expo was General Atomics’ electromagnetic rail cannon. The company has been working for a number of years with the Office of Naval Research on a 200-nautical mile gun system. In a parallel effort, they’ve been developing a smaller, pulse-power technology demonstrator, called the Blitzer, for ship defense against anti-ship cruise missiles and small boat swarms.

Two million amps launch a guided projectile at twice the speed of a conventional gun, but at much lower cost than the usual surface-to-air missile systems on most naval ships. General Atomics is working on a cannon that can launch an airburst round at a rate of one per second. Each round dispenses sub-projectiles, so its equivalent to firing 14,000 rounds a minute, which is a higher rate of fire than the Phalanx close-in weapons system, says Tom Hurn, General Atomics director of advanced weapons systems.

[Thunder90]

I want to see development of a railgun that launches nuclear weapons.

[dangerdoc]

bump

[DoughtyOne]

LOL

[DoughtyOne]

Exactly! The other night they were saying how lame it was that he didn’t provide shrapnel materials like bolts and things, to cause more damage.

I’m sitting there with my jaw dropped, thinking I’d like to hit the announcer in the head with a hammer.

“Well they had a nuclear weapon, but they forgot this one little piece or it would have worked. Go to www.?????.com. We have a diagram there for you to review”

[driftdiver]

“Two million amps.”

Adding power to the old adage that its not the watts that kills you, its the amps.

[DaxtonBrown]

Now that’s a fun job. “She blowed up Reeeel good!”

[Erasmus]

You gotta wonder what the fuse looks like on that suckah!

[arthurus]

These things are old news. I remember reading about them half a century ago in a publication called Astounding.

[The KG9 Kid]

It can fire to the horizon in 6 seconds?

Soooo... ~= 23 miles in six seconds.

No kidding it doesn't need explosives. Anything it hits will itself become an explosive.

I wouldn't want to be inside a mile or two of whatever gets hit with something traveling that speed. That projectile would blow a blacksmith's anvil to pebble sized fragments and launch them a mile in all directions, I bet.

[A.A. Cunningham]

the old adage that its not the watts that kills you, its the amps.

the old adage that it's not the volts that kills you, its the amps.

[driftdiver]

ack, I screwed it up trying to be funny

[OneWingedShark]

That projectile would blow a blacksmith’s anvil to pebble sized fragments and launch them a mile in all directions, I bet.

Maybe not; it might just go through the anvil. {and spew a lot of molten-iron out the ‘exit wound.’}

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

“Catapultam habeo. (I have a catapult. Unless you)
Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, give me all the money, I will)
ad caput tuum saxum immane (throw an enormous rock at your head)
mittam.”

[The KG9 Kid]

I did some thinking about what would likely happen, and I still think that cast iron anvil would be shattered and blown to Hell and gone.

[OneWingedShark]

>Obama’s policies may spur nuclear proliferation

Looks like we have a situation in need of a field test. ;)

[OneWingedShark]

...sorry, I apparently only pressed Ctrl and didn’t hit the ‘C.’