Railgun

[tomahawk6]

DAHLGREN, Va. (Nov. 28, 2007) The Office of Naval Research 32 MJ (megajoules) Electromagnetic Railgun (EMRG) laboratory launcher, located on board the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division, is operational and preparing to set the world record for the highest muzzle energy launch of a projectile 10 MJ. When operational, the rail gun will fire projectiles at ranges in excess of 200 nautical miles. U.S. Navy photo by John F. Williams (Released)

 

[ModlrMike]

It will be interesting to see if this can be engineered into an operationally deployable weapon.

 

[tomahawk6]

Based on the tests the concept is doable in time - on land. The problem on a ship is the power to fire the weapon.Right now its not there. It will be interesting to see how they can overcome this issue.

 

[jollyjacktar]

I thought they gave this concept up about 20 years ago as it was possible, but not practical to scale it down for shipboard use.  Interesting to see how far they take this.  They must have been encouraged by the Metal Storm systems.

 

[Old Ranger]

"Future Weapons with Mack" on Discovery showed it firing.

 

[tomahawk6]

Here is a Popular Science article. I guess the Navy may be farther along in solving the power problem.

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/technology/generaltechnology/64669aa138b84010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html

 

[a_majoor]

The issue isn't energy, large warships have very powerful engines and new designs like the DD-X are designed to shuttle power to wherever it is needed.

The most pressing issue with railguns is the erosion of the conductive armatures which transfer the current to the projectile. The second issue is the mechanical forces that try to force the rails apart during firing. 20 years ago this was touted as the next big thing for artillery and tank cannons, but the issue of scaling the power generation systems was never resolved with 1980's vintage technology (and I don't think it is possible even today).

One thing that this technology could evolve into is means of launching very small devices into orbit (or shooting at incoming warheads and enemy satellites). A mobile launcher like a ship combined with this technology could have very interesting consequences.

 

[tomahawk6]

It certainly is something out of science fiction but if it can be made to work in a real world environment I agree with you it may revolutionize artillery both on land and sea.