Its a good start, especially since it appears to be a home built project. However the demonstration range was maybe 3m and nothing was said about how many shots the battery could power. I think it'll take a TL or two to get the requisite energy density in the battery to produce a decent range and a large enough endurance to be useful. It might also take a further TL to handle the cooling requirements on the coil between shots.
Golan2072 said:
Its main advantage so far is that it is completely silent (apart from the impact itself, that is) and leaves no powder residue. If someone would make it much more compact, it could be an excellent assassin weapon... :twisted:
That gauss gun was 'silent' since the ammo was travelling slowly - which would be perfect for something like a close range pistol, particularly an assassins weapon as Golan suggested. For battlefield weapons designed to overcome armour you'll need something with more omph.
Traveller versions use smaller calibre rounds which (depending on shape and mass) would require accelerations at perhaps near hypersonic velocities(*) to inflict damage equivalent to a propellant based weapon. Thus unless the needles have some sort of hi-tech noise suppressing aerodynamic profile, they will produce a discernible cracking signature. Sound volume will depend on velocity, profile and rate of fire of the dart/needle, but in general
should be quieter than a firearm. However since the noise will be produced along its flight path, it might be difficult for sensor-less targets to locate the origin of the shot.
(*) Of course, depending on how fast the projectile is travelling it could have a serious thermal signature, possibly even igniting the air around itself and being visible as a flash line of fire in the case of support level or vehicle based gauss weapons.
In reality gauss weapons aren't really stealthy, but I'm fine with Traveller versions having high TL solutions to most of the problems.
:wink:
