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SUNDAY FEBRUARY 3 2008 10:00 AM

The US Navy's Newest BFG

Submitted by punk

Edited by punk

Tags: us navy, rail gun, weapon

Late last year, the United States Navy took delivery of a 32-megajoule rail gun at its Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, VA.

Rail guns, like laser weapons, are something out of the science-fiction world. Projectiles are driven by electrically-charged magnets, accelerating them to extremely high speeds without the use of a chemical propellant like gun powder or rocket fuel.

Yesterday the Navy completed a test run of the weapon, firing a 90mm round at 8,270 feet per second, or 5,640mph (source did not cite this information), at 10 megajoules - only a third of the guns potential power.

Unfortunately for the Navy (and rail gun enthusiasts), the weapons have a few limitations.

drawing on tremendous amounts of electricity to generate the current for each test shot. That, of course, is the problem with rail guns: Like lasers, theyre out of step with modern-day generators and capacitors.

Effective rail guns will require a major breakthrough in materials between now and 2020, to keep the guns themselves from being shredded by each high-velocity barrage.

The Navy hopes to have a future version installed on their DDG 100 destroyers, or the DDG's next-generation older brother the CG(X), by around 2025. Such a weapon would be able to hit a target 200 miles away with GPS-enabled rounds at a possible speeds of Mach 5 or more.

punk assumes there will be no duck and cover.

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Comments

Coyotemike

USA

May 2006

FEB 03, 2008 10:17 AM

Mark_plus_Beer

United Kingdom

August 2005

FEB 03, 2008 10:33 AM

i want that please to destroy all my enemies

Soldat26

Fort Benning, GA

February 2008

FEB 03, 2008 10:44 AM

it there any way you can mount that on an M4

Coyotemike

USA

May 2006

FEB 03, 2008 10:51 AM

(as I MEANT to say . . . )

We've come a long way from throwing rocks and sharp sticks.

Colinism

Atlanta, GA

July 2005

FEB 03, 2008 11:06 AM

Mmmm rail guns.......

Those will come in real handy when the covenant attacks us.

mingol

Singapore

July 2005

FEB 03, 2008 12:23 PM

Soldat26 said:
it there any way you can mount that on an M4

Fuck that. Is there any way you can mount one on my house?

Never mind the electric bill - there are so many deserving targets.

FearTheReaper

NEWSWIRE

I'm lost

FEB 03, 2008 12:26 PM

Colinism said:
Mmmm rail guns.......

Those will come in real handy when the covenant attacks us.

I'm more worried about The Flood, to be honest.

SmellsLikeSciFi

Houston, TX

April 2004

FEB 03, 2008 01:31 PM

just wait till they can get one on a Predator drone...er, the futuristic version of the Predator. now THAT is some scary shit.

MrCrisp

I'm lost

August 2004

FEB 03, 2008 01:51 PM

FearTheReaper said:

Colinism said:
Mmmm rail guns.......

Those will come in real handy when the covenant attacks us.

I'm more worried about The Flood, to be honest.

but how effective are these weapons against, say, subterranean foes like the locust?

J24U

Danvers, MA

February 2006

FEB 03, 2008 01:53 PM

FearTheReaper said:

Colinism said:
Mmmm rail guns.......

Those will come in real handy when the covenant attacks us.

I'm more worried about The Flood, to be honest.

In which case, a shotgun with buckshot seems to work better at any rate.

r00kers

Nederland, CO

February 2003

FEB 03, 2008 02:04 PM

These are rather popular amateur projects, with the hardest problem being energy storage. I don't know if it can really be made into an actual usable weapon anytime soon as the materials and energy requirements are really out of reach at the moment. Its a pretty cool idea and they are a lot of fun to play with.

This page has a reasonable looking schematic. Note that the capacitor bank requires 6200uF of capacitance at 3.6kV. This would be very difficult in and of itself to achieve in a design with low enough discharge inductance.