Electromagnetic Railgun: An Innovative Naval Program
What is the electromagnetic railgrun? In a word, innovation. This weapons system will bypass the traditional use of chemical propellants or rocket motors for firing projectiles or missiles. Instead, electromagnetic railguns mounted on U.S. naval vessels will use electricity to launch projectiles farther and faster than any ship in today’s fleet. When fully operational, the electromagnetic railgun (EMRG) will:
* Deliver hypervelocity projectiles at Mach 5 on impact in support of Marines and ground forces.
* Strike within 5 meters of a pinpointed target from distances in excess of 200 nautical miles.
* Maximize damage through kinetic energy from longer range while minimizing risks to crews and ships.
Check out the testing process, plus this article where they describe a comparison of the gun’s power:
Garnett compared that force to hitting a target with a Ford Taurus at 380 mph. “It will take out a building,” he said. Warheads aren’t needed because of the massive force of impact.
Only a guess… but the logo on that website makes it look like the trajectory curves with gravity… so
1) They can calculate where to aim accurately taking gravity into account.
2) The velocity makes the effect of air turbulence and wind negligible.
my guess – can’t wait to learn more…
Most of the coolest technology is derived from weapons research. Also, since having better weapons than potential rivals is of utmost importance, this kind of development is of utmost importance. The best way to talk to your enemies is from a position of superiority.
[Message deleted – Violation of Posting Guidelines. – ed.]
#35 – joseph1949 – We cannot win future wars or occupations with high tech weapons.
But you sure as hell can lose them without high tech weapons.
We must educate our solders to speak the language of the people.
Speak the language of love… pass me the joint…
Trust me; it will NEVER be used in a war…
I wouldn’t bet on that. Artillery support has been part of every modern war.
[Message deleted – Violation of Posting Guidelines. – ed.]
Maybe I get the last word. The warriors are out this weekend. How about a rail weapon with a large payload that travels at Mach 9?
http://tinyurl.com/2zw6e3
[Message deleted – Violation of Posting Guidelines. – ed.]
In the END,
Its the foot soldier that has to GO IN, and make sure everyone is DEAD.
You cant COUNT the dead from the air.
You cant identify the 1 you wanted DEAD from the air.
And you cant HEAL those that were HURT from the Shrapnels of the BLAST…from the air.
#37 – joseph1949
😀 Just because I think that modern weaponry is important, doesn’t mean that I have to be a Republican.
Btw… the 1949 in your name… was that your Best before year?
[Message deleted – Violation of Posting Guidelines. – ed.]
[Message deleted – Violation of Posting Guidelines. – ed.]
# 31 Jägermeister
Hey, give him a break you know its hard enough to type with two fingers…or maybe one.
The info I read also from the Navy indicated it was an inert projectile…easy to see this is a government project!
Cheers
Some comments for Joseph1949:
1) The $$$ isn’t just in Republican hands. There’s more than enough in the Democratic hands (just ask Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer). Concentrating on Bush shows that you really don’t care about the money or the tech. Just about Bush. You’d be more credible if you pointed out both sides are equally wasteful.
2) Tomahawks can be shot down, jammed, etc. Dumb artillery projectiles can’t.
3) The big ship guns only go so far inland (my fuzzy recollection is around 27 miles). A rail gun has the potential to fire 230 miles inland (I’ve seen some articles saying up to 400 miles). Barring mountains and the like, that kind of distance would cover one side of Florida to the other with room to spare.
It’s not a laser. It’s not full power or bust. A lot of that can be adjusted. The potential is there to be able to launch thousands of projectiles in a sustained bombardment of a target in a short time period that does not currently exist. That’s what excites the Navy.
4) Whether or not it is feasible is another thing entirely, I question their accuracy statements for example. However, it won’t be developed on its own without investment. At least, not by us. To be honest, I think that it would be more damaging against us than for us, assume those that would want to use it against us can actually implement it.
5) Re. low tech drones. You need to clarify what you mean by low tech. Real time remote guided and autonomous drones with radar, infra red, hellfire missle armament and the like isn’t exactly what most people would consider low tech.
45,
true…
Good points.
another goes like this…
Accuracy is equal to the RANGE of the object and how many Bullets you throw at it.
1 degree HERE, is 2-10 miles OFF at the location of impact.
Vying for accuracy is WIND, WAVES of a ship, Air density(hot and cold), Humidity, POWER(it takes ALOT to fire 1 shot) enough to power a small city(think about that).
Then comes damage.
Are you going to use this to KILL 1 person?? I dont think you will be that Lucky.
Yep, you aren’t going to target and kill one person with this. You should be able to take out a hardened facility behind heavy anti-air coverage though.
This would be good for bunkers and the like. Which I imagine means more deep underground bunkers. I’d be curious to see what would happen if you toss several hundred/thousand heavy projectiles at the same spot over a hardened underground bunker though.
Powerwise, these would have to be on nuclear ships that already have the power of a small city. I would assume they’d also have to be larger ships to deal with the recoil.
#42 – joseph1949 – High tech weaponary is a scam. Prople like you with room tempature I.Q.s cannot understand this.
So, saturation bombing a la WW2 is better than smart bombs/artillery shells. And you’re implying that I’m dumb… 😀
#44 – TIHZ_HO – The info I read also from the Navy indicated it was an inert projectile…
True… it totally relies on kinetic energy to do the job… brute force approach… 😉
#45 – jc – Dumb artillery projectiles can’t.
Good post! Only one thing… incoming projectiles can be shot down.
#46 – ECA
You wouldn’t aim to kill one person with an artillery shell. 8)
#47 – jc
It will fire 6-10 heavy projectiles a minute. Doesn’t mean you can’t have ten ships laying down the fire though.
Brute Force – when you’re going Mach whatever, you don’t really need high explosives.
Intercepting projectiles – I didn’t see it talking about incoming artillery or big naval guns… 🙂 Mortars are a bit different. I imagine they could have used some of those prototypes in Israel a little while back though.
6-10 heavy projectiles – I stand corrected. I guess the reality would be a lot less depending on how they’re powering it up.
#43 joseph1949
Jägermeister is a German liquor.
http://www.jager.com/index.cfm?
Its just a handle, a nick name for posting.
As you are preoccupied with the meaning of one’s posting nickname, perhaps change yours to “Poopie head”. 🙂
Cheers
the trick with this being artillery, and NOT MORTAR.. Is that this is a DIRECt shot..
This isnt a Lob shot, which would Loose all of its USE.
Shooting that LONG of a shot, and hitting anything NEAR ground level, would have to go threw 2-3 BLOCKS of building BEFORe it could hit its target.
[Message deleted – Violation of Posting Guidelines. – ed.]
The other thing with these rounds is that they are pretty much dense metal. Even with a lob shot at max range, it’s not exactly the easiest thing to deflect.
I think that a lob shot is certainly possible since they are currently using concrete bombs to take out buildings. It’s not like a full power direct hit, but it’ll still do some damage.
#50 – TIHZ_HO
No need to explain. They don’t call this guy for Teflon for nothing…
#51 – ECA – Is that this is a DIRECt shot.
You didn’t read the FAQ, did you…
#53 – jc – Even with a lob shot at max range, it’s not exactly the easiest thing to deflect
Agreed.
The FAQ was very interesting. Thanks for posting the link.
Yes it was, Thanks Jägermeister! BTW that web site is blocked in China I had to use a anonymous proxy server to read it…
Cheers
#52 joseph1949
No, ‘TIHZ_HO’ is English. If you were smart enough to see if you were to look at “TIHZ HO” in the mirror it is “OH SHIT” spelled backwards.
Being a sofa bound tuber perhaps it was not obvious that ‘Jägermeister’ is a German Liquor. By the same token if you are offered a Colt45 I assume you think its a gun. 😆
Cheers
[Message deleted – Violation of Posting Guidelines. – ed.]
#55 – jc, #56 – TIHZ_HO
No problem guys. I’m glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
I’m surprised China isn’t doing more to block proxies (after all, a lot of them are posted openly on the net).
#59 Jägermeister
I thought that as well. The official Chinese purpose for web censorship is to block porn and socially subversive content.
The unofficial reason why proxies aren’t blocked is so foreigners can still access sites which have been blocked inadvertently – such as Wikipedia.
The odd thing though, web censorship is not universal. For example: Shanghai blocks Wikipedia but Beijing does not as well as other cities I have been.
When a web page takes a while to load then suddenly does I often imagine some Chinese guy in a darken room somewhere watching my Internet surfing and he just pressed the “YES” button instead of the “NO” button. :/ Its not – its a system developed by Cisco Systems INC. 🙂
#58 joseph1949
I know I should really just ignore you…but…
You really don’t have a clue do you?
Incidentally its “Bye” not “By” 😆
Cheers
[Message deleted – Violation of Posting Guidelines. – ed.]
Why do all the kids think its so cool to hate America?
There are far worse places to be, and all this “Oh we are corrupt, oh we are going to fall, oh we are going the way of the romans” is nothing but defeatist talk from arm-chair politicians and angry teenagers who just want something to insult or an institution to tear down in a mock revoloution. FIGHT THE POWER YEAH IMA REBEL
Though, whoever is spouting this Anti-America Propaganda, it is working.
Rant off.