Posted on 05/27/2016 10:28:47 AM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
That's the latest technological hurdle that they are working on overcoming. Developing/hardening the electronics to withstand a mach 7 launch well enough to execute GPS targeting and deploying a shrapnel cloud at speed.
This is true, but the bullet isn't flying until it's out of the end of the barrel and no longer in contact with the lands and grooves. The original statement is true on its face.
Humans are infinitely clever at making weapons work. Might be a few years but a system that requires no explosives or fancy fuses is desirable beyond belief. At those velocities you can hit anything you can see and everything is at point blank range in a practical sense. No more need for ranging. Just aim and shoot.
Good point.
They can make guided bullets, so yes.
IF they haven't already stolen the plans.
Why am I thinking Death Star.
I’m shocked that someone makes a camera that can track that thing in flight
...
A mile a second.
Amateur astronomers use hand held telescopes to take pictures of the space station and other satellites. They rely on a vast number of snapshots to get a few that are just right.
Perhaps Dahlgren uses several cameras pointed at different angles and then stitches the results together.
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