Posted on 04/07/2014 6:43:27 PM PDT by mandaladon
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy is planning sea trials for a weapon that can fire a low-cost, 23-pound (10-kg) projectile at seven times the speed of sound using electromagnetic energy, a "Star Wars" technology that will make enemies think twice, the Navy's research chief said.
Rear Admiral Matthew Klunder, the chief of Naval Research, told a round table group recently the futuristic electromagnetic rail gun had already undergone extensive testing on land and would be mounted on the USNS Millinocket, a high-speed vessel, for sea trials beginning in 2016.
"It's now reality and it's not science fiction. It's actually real. You can look at it. It's firing," said Klunder, who planned to discuss progress on the system later on Monday with military and industry leaders at a major maritime event - the Sea-Air-Space Exposition - near Washington.
"It will help us in air defense, it will help us in cruise missile defense, it will help us in ballistic missile defense," he said. "We're also talking about a gun that's going to shoot a projectile that's about one one-hundredth of the cost of an existing missile system today."
The Navy research chief said that cost differential - $25,000 for a railgun projectile versus $500,000 to $1.5 million for a missile - will make potential enemies think twice about the economic viability of engaging U.S. forces.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Railguns are cool tech with lots of applications.
Shouldn’t this be classified, at least Secret? Why is this Admiral talking about it?
Like downing aircraft.
Even small supersonic drones.
Nothing secret about rail guns in general and I suspect this guy isn’t letting anything go that’s sensitive.
If your ammunition is a block of metal, the explosions just don't happen. That's a plus.
Modern ships, like the Zumwalt-class destroyers were designed to use railguns. The platforms and the guns were put on separate development paths with the expectation that they would reach fruition pretty much simultaneously.
And here we are.
They would also be great for putting payloads into orbit from low gravity places like the moon.
In fact, if the payload is durable enough (Like a titanium projectile) they could actually be used as a moon based weapon to hit targets on earth.
Its not really new and has been in the works for decades.
Every publicly known advance in technology which fits the logic diagram of needed subsystems has been noted by people all across the planet who follow weapons development.
Sometimes attempting secrecy makes you look like a naked emperor, and you are better off just brandishing the new stick openly.
TAANSTAFL, Mycroft.
Rods from God. The metal of choice is tungsten.
This gun doesn’t work on land? In Space?
I’d bet that thing would do one hell of a job against enemy ships too. Would probably go through the hull of a ship like a hot knife through butter.
MACH 10 Rail Gun Prototype build by European BAE for US Navy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa_vuX5_oAk
Get a look at the photos of the vessel they’re installing the test model on. This thing is HUGE.
Gonna have some B F Capacitors for that baby!
Zumwalt destroyers generate 78 megawatts of power. Comes in handy for this sort of application.
Its pretty cool sounding, but doesn’t have much range. Rail gun vs. aircraft carrier, cruise missle, ICBM, or land aircraft would have the rail gun lose.
Anti aircraft fire becomes a much more serious threat.
As ever, however, the weapon is easier deployed on a naval platform. Land units will be more problematic.
He is talking about it because it is “scary tech”. Viable, yes but most likely not available. So you get the maximum value by making the enemy think about what they would be facing.
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