U.S. Navy to test futuristic, super-fast gun at sea in 2016

Yahoo News ^ | 7 Apr 2014 | David Alexander

[Fai Mao]

The return of the battleship?

[nomad]

What would happen to a rail-gun if a powerful EMP went off nearby?

[lonevoice]

Cool new military weaponry ping.

[ClearCase_guy]

Each tool has its purpose.

If you want to take out a city, use an ICBM.
If you want to take out a radar station, use a tomahawk.
If you want to maintain air superiority and perform interdiction, move a carrier into the area.

Once those things are in place, having a ship that can devastate anything within 100 miles of the coast sure makes land attack easy and paves the way for the Marines. NOTE: the list of juicy targets within 100 miles of the coast (around the world) is very long. The list of juicy targets more than 100 miles from the coast is much shorter.

[MrEdd]

Depends on how it is built. Its quite possible to make anything robust enough to withstand an EMP, and EMP threats are primarily to devices using low current.

[cripplecreek]

Metalstorm gun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFjGbOyd2ek

[Vince Ferrer]

So, wait until the rail gun ship gets two hundred miles from your coastline, launch a cruise missle at it, and sink the ship before it fires a shot.

[nomad]

But you can overload it`s systems and that would leave a ship so armed, unless it had good old fashioned guns and missiles, defenseless.

[ClearCase_guy]

How many US carriers have been sunk in the past 70 years? None. There's a reason for that.

We actually do know how to protect our ships, and we are capable of removing threats or countering threats as we make our deployment choices. The ships with railguns are not going to be sitting ducks.

[nomad]

Is the national grid lower power device?

[nomad]

I seem to remember someone saying those power lines carry a hell of a lot of voltage, were they wrong?

[cripplecreek]

Phalanx guns do a pretty good job of protecting against most airborne threats.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb5lKhqqhTg

[mandaladon]

[nomad]

Oh, and those power-grid transformers, wouldn`t they use something similar to step up voltage for those rail guns? Perhaps high power capacitors too? And lets not forget the generators.

[babygene]

“What would happen to a rail-gun if a powerful EMP went off nearby?”

Nothing...

[MrEdd]

If your cruise missile makes it to the target at all.

[anoldafvet]

Don’t worry, Obama or Hagel will cancel it.

[MrEdd]

The control circuitry without which it goes down is. Lose the generator plants and the substations and the lines are useless.

[nomad]

Really? Its coils and power generating systems would not be overloaded? You`re willing to bet American sailor`s lives on that? Maybe you`d want to bet your life on it but we lose our naval defense and the main land gets attacked as well. Iffy tech is no substitute for tested and proven weapons.

[CodeToad]

“If you want to take out a city, use an ICBM.”

If you want to take out an aircraft carrier, use an ICBM.