US Navy Tests Railroad Gun

[ccheese]

A futuristic weapon getting a trial run by the Navy demonstrated its destructive power at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Virginia.

In the demonstration Thursday, engineers fired the electromagnetic railgun at what they said was a record power level: 10 megajoules.

Current Navy guns generate about 9 megajoules of muzzle energy.

Railguns use electromagnetic energy to launch projectiles long distances - more than 200 nautical miles. Because the railgun uses electricity and not gunpowder to fire projectiles, it eliminates the possibility of explosions on ships.

The Navy hopes the railgun will eventually replace the standard 5-inch gun on its ships. The weapon isnt expected to be deployed until at least 2020.

The rail gun fired a seven pound projectile at seven times the speed of sound !, and hit the target in the bullseye.

This from the Norfolk Virginian Pilot

Charles

 

[Konigstiger205]

If only mankind would come up with better medical solution as fast as it comes with new ways to kill...

 

[Thorlifter]

Amazing gun, but that's a great point Konigstiger.

 

[Matt308]

And they actually do. Just not as fascinating as blowing something up. The railgun concept is interesting because it allows for a 5-7 round salvo with varying trajectories from high to low allowing for all 5-7 rounds to hit simultaneously. Pretty interesting concept when your targets are 180 miles onshore.

 

[Graeme]

Wasn't it the Reagan Administration with the 'Star Wars' programme that proposed similar technology to orbit the earth and destroy ascending ICBMs?

 

[Njaco]

and I also thought Iran or Iraq was testing something like this in the desert in the 70s or 80s, some railgun that they couldn't get the last piece to complete.

 

[Clave]

Yes, it was a big scandal:

Arms-to-Iraq - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The gun in question:

Project Babylon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Seizure of the parts leaving England:

BBC ON THIS DAY | 11 | 1990: Customs seize 'supergun'

This whole thing led indirectly to the Labour victory in the 1997 election...

 

[Heinz]

Amazing stuff.

 

[Njaco]

Thats it Clave. I saw a docu on Bull where all the major world powers ignored him and he eventually went to Iraq. Amazing stuff. And Saddam never had the ability to have WMDs. hmmmmmmm.

 

[evangilder]

Yep, Gerald Bull had some neat ideas. Too bad he sold that to the Iraqis. Five shots to the back of the head with a small caliber silenced pistol...Hmmmm...Seems pretty obvious there.

 

[Njaco]

Thats what I thought when I watched the docu, but it was implied of course.

 

[evangilder]

They have neither confirmed nor denied the assassination, but the fingerprint is pretty obvious. I would venture to guess that any one of those shots was a kill shot, the other four were for good measure.

 

[Matt308]

Bull and railgun technologies? Not the same.

 

[Freebird]

Gerald Bull was one heck of an inventive guy. He had worked on developing a more convensional size railgun in addition to the "Supergun". he was Canadian too, by the way.