FASTER THAN A SPEEDING BULLET (A First Look at America’s Supergun)

The Wall Street Journal ^ | May 27, 2016 | Julian E. Barnes

[sukhoi-30mki]

DAHLGREN, Va.—A warning siren bellowed through the concrete bunker of a top-secret Naval facility where U.S. military engineers prepared to demonstrate a weapon for which there is little defense.

Officials huddled at a video screen for a first look at a deadly new supergun that can fire a 25-pound projectile through seven steel plates and leave a 5-inch hole.

The weapon is called a railgun and requires neither gunpowder nor explosive. It is powered by electromagnetic rails that accelerate a hardened projectile to staggering velocity—a battlefield meteorite with the power to one day transform military strategy, say supporters, and keep the U.S. ahead of advancing Russian and Chinese weaponry.

In conventional guns, a bullet loses velocity from the moment the gunpowder ignites and sends it flying. The railgun projectile instead gains speed as it travels the length of a 32-foot barrel, exiting the muzzle at 4,500 miles an hour, or more than a mile a second.

“This is going to change the way we fight,” said U.S. Navy Adm. Mat Winter, the head of the Office of Naval Research.

[al baby]

Ginsberg Iceberg we sure as hell hit something

[al baby]

or all of North Korea

[The_Media_never_lie]

So, this is an upgrade to the zip gun?

[Lazamataz]

nquestionably he est echnology ver.

[arthurus]

A dictionary is no longer authoritative because they accept any word or use that they can find three people in the Hood to be using. Refer back to Webster's 2nd International. If you rely on current dictionaries than nothing is wrong with any use of a word and language no longer has any meaning.

[odawg]

“Thanks to Hilda, the Russians already have the specs”

And thanks to Obama/Valerie, Iran.

[doorgunner69]

Good grief, how often has this same story been trotted out?

[mountainlion]

So, this is an upgrade to the zip gun?

Or an electric slingshot.

[Red Badger]

[The_Media_never_lie]

One drawback: it requires a whole lot of electricity to power something like this

25 megawatt of power is enough to light a city.

On most windy and sunny days that aren't too hot or too cold, we should have plenty of electricity to power it from our wind and solar farms. It is so important that it consume renewables.

[Rennes Templar]

I think popular usage has turned it into a verb also.

[Lazamataz]

Do you think a guy like this will be permitted to operate or maintain the railgun?

[al baby]

How about the border patrol get a air wing of warthogs

[Edward.Fish]

The problem is that the aliens invading the USA aren’t arriving from other worlds in a vehicle you can shoot down with a space age weapon.
They are arriving here by walking across the border or flying in on commercial airliners.

Oh, there's an artillery solution to that, too.
(HE is really good for sending the message "get out of here" in a language-agnostic manner.)

[rightwingcrazy]

“25 megawatt of power is enough to light a city.”

I’d guess it’s well within the power generating capacity of a nuclear submarine, say. A railgun sidearm may be a ways off, though.

[Jarhead9297]

By the looks of him he is undoubtedly an upstanding and successful citizen adding to the professional work collective.

[PLMerite]

All I know is that “loan” as a verb has been in common colloquial use for decades. I’m saving my energy for preserving the proper definitions of ‘Man’ ‘Woman’ and ‘Freak.’

[mountainlion]

It is so important that it consume renewables.

The only problem is getting the electricity form the windmill to the ship. Using radio or microwave transmission of the power could kill more birds that all the windmills combined and half of the people in the transmission path.

[Lazamataz]

But the problem is, when he fires the railgun, his face sticks to the barrel for a week.

[mountainlion]

well within the power generating capacity of a nuclear submarine

WOW, an underwater gun to replace torpedoes.