The electro-magnetic gun program gets US$14.7 million

Gizmag ^ | 7/7/06 | Gizmag

[Reaganesque]

July 7, 2006 The United States Navy has awarded two contracts for the development of an electro-magnetic gun system capable of deployment on board naval surface combatant ships. The development work preliminary design for an Electro-Magnetic (EM) railgun prototype and the preliminary design of the U.S Navy's 32 megajoule (MJ) Laboratory Launcher. An electro-magnetic railgun uses electrical energy to accelerate projectiles to extreme velocities. Railguns do not require powders or explosives to fire the round and therefore free magazine space for other mission areas. In addition, electro-magnetic guns provide a highly consistent and uniform explosive charge that gives much greater accuracy. Thirty-two megajoule is equivalent to a firing speed of Mach 8 or eight times the speed of sound. This will be an intermediate step on the road to a 64-MJ Tactical System capable of deployment on-board naval surface combatant ships.

The development work includes a US$9.3 million contract from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to develop technologies and preliminary design for an Electro-Magnetic (EM) railgun prototype and a US$5.4M contract from Naval Special Warfare Center-Dahlgren for the design and fabrication of the U.S Navy's 32 megajoule (MJ) Laboratory Launcher.

BAE Systems was selected by ONR to advance to the next phase of the Innovative Naval Prototype Program. Under this 30-month phase, BAE Systems will take the state-of-the-art Electro-Magnetic Railgun technologies through technology maturation and develop a preliminary design of a 32-MJ EM Railgun. Thirty-two megajoule is equivalent to a firing speed of Mach 8 or eight times the speed of sound. This will be an intermediate step on the road to a 64-MJ Tactical System capable of deployment on-board naval surface combatant ships. The design and fabrication of the 32-MJ Laboratory Launcher will serve as a major step towards development of a full-scale tactical EM Gun weapon system for the U.S. Navy.

[Redleg Duke]

Or was it Danny Vermin?

[Sergio]

I read in a SciFi novel, (can't remember which) that the projectiles used were just cubes of Lexan. The speed to which the cubes were accelerated, caused the Lexan to turn to plasma.

I don't know if there is any hard science to the above scenario, but it leaves me thinking of the scene in Terminator where Arnold asks the gun store owner for a "phased plasma rifle".

To the engineers and other big brained folks on this forum, what would a projectile have to be made of to stay together at Mach 8 plus?

[Reaganesque]

Let's try posting the picture again. Not sure why it didn't work before.

[Mogollon]

64 MJ would propel the projectile at about 15,488 feet/second. A round from my .300 win mag has a muzzle velocity of about 3600 ft./sec.

[roaddog727]

"Would an EMP knock out a reactor?"

No, an EMP would not knock out the reactor.

However, any electronic components associated with either the control of the reactor or the transmission/switching of the power would get fried unless it were properly shielded.

[RonF]

Don't forget, though, that we're not just talking about the source. There has to be electronics of some size to take that amount of electrical energy, store it, and then release it quickly but in a highly controlled fashion.

[Centurion2000]

If you want to think of something even cooler, imagine a CIWS vulcan cannon using something like this.

BB's at 15000fps at 6000rpm

[Famishus]

1.7 Giggiawatts?

[A Texan]

No it is actually fired by energy, think big bad ass batteries. Possibly chemical batteries if it is like the ones I read about a few years back.

[ASOC]

David Drake (Hammers Slammers) had copper ion guns where the ammo was held in a plastic matrix.... could that be it?

Big part of the story was fusion powered, air-cushioned battle tanks.

Also featured air-cushioned Hogs, CAV (combat cars) and Jeeps. BR>

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Electric Guns are not new concepts, with the first experiments going back to World War I by the French, and later in World War II by the Germans.

Check these links for more details:

http://www.lonesentry.com/articles/electricgun/index.html

http://www.geocities.com/pentagon/2833/wunderwaffen/supergun/electricgun/electricgun.html

[GSlob]

"what would a projectile have to be made of to stay together at Mach 8 plus?"
While moving through what medium? In 1 atm air any high melting alloy would do.

[Little Ray]

The Slammers used "Power Guns" which fired some sort of undefined energy bolt that was apparently assembled out of metallic ions in the plastic matrix. They apparently spent their energy on the first solid object encountered (how this was defined escapes me...), limiting their penetrating power (which didn't stop 'em from knocking out tanks...).

[GSlob]

That's what capacitors are for. Capacitor bank for 64MJ is rather heavy. If one counts that a lot of electric energy gets dissipated out, then one needs much larger and bulkier capacitor bank.

[piytar]

"The gun is supposed to be on a nuclear powered naval ship. Would an EMP knock out a reactor? I second the call for someone with a bigger brain."

Depends on the shielding -- it is fairly easy to shield against EMP. Basically just put a metal cage ("Faraday shielding" I believe it's called) around the sensitive parts or the whole ship interior for that matter. Remember, EMP is not designed to take out military assets or kill people, it's intended to crush a civilian high-tech economy. (And yes, we could shield practically everything, but the sheer volume of stuff that would have to be shielded makes this prohibitively expensive.)

[bjcintennessee]

PING! PING!

[wyattearp]

(which didn't stop 'em from knocking out tanks...).

Highly effective on incoming artillery as well. Slave the "blowers" guns to air defense, and rip the arty out of the sky. I love the Slammers. I think that I've read everything that Drake wrote. Awesome writer.

[San Franistan]

From Back To The Future, it's supposed to be "One Point Twenty-One Jiggawatts"

[7thOF7th]

I would like the hand held version please!

[Sergio]

No, haven't read any of that series, but from your description, I will pick up a copy this weekend. Sounds like a fun read.