Free Republic

Washington — An Iranian vessel sailed too close to the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, and the U.S. fired at the vessel, according to two U.S. officials briefed on the matter who spoke to CBS News under condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The officials said a U.S. Navy vessel attempted to fire on the Iranian vessel using its 5-inch, 54-caliber Marck-45 gun, a fully automated naval cannon that is mounted to the forward deck of Navy destroyers and cruisers and has served as the fleet's standard deck gun since the early 1970s. While it's...

he US Navy recently released footage of its first testfire of an electromagnetic railgun at their new terminal at Office of Naval Research and Naval Surface Warfare Center. Railguns use 20 to 32 mega joules of electromagnetic energy to fire projectiles at seven to nine times the speed of sound, according to a Congressional Research Service report on the weapons. Because they fire with electricity alone — not chemical explosives like conventional ammunition — railguns can potentially operate much cheaper and fire much much faster than weapons currently used by the Navy. The Navy has long sought the technology as...