Navy to Begin Tests on Electromagnetic Railgun Prototype Lau

Weren't they working on the prototype in the early 2000's? I remember seeing a Youtube video from a test around 2008 or 9 that was pretty wicked.
 
They've been working on a variety of railgun projects. One got cancelled... last year? But there are several still going. This seems to be an industrial prototype, which I believe means it was machined instead of hand crafted... Maybe...
 
I think you're right - one of them was either cancelled completely or had its funding pulled (amounts to pretty much the same thing) about a year ago. The biggest problem with these things is not necessarily getting them to fire, but getting an effective power source on board a ship - they are incredibly power-hungry at the moment (which might change as the technology improves).
 
Getting an effective powerplant? Um... hello nuclear powered warships...
No, the big problem is firing them more than once without melting the barrel and/or housing...
 
barnest2 said:
Getting an effective powerplant? Um... hello nuclear powered warships...
No, the big problem is firing them more than once without melting the barrel and/or housing...
Click to expand...

Umm. Yes. Right. True about melting the housing, lol! But a nuclear powered warship still won't produce the high power requirements needed (basically a nuclear reactor still produces power the same way a coal-fired boiler did at the turn of the 20th century - just tons more efficiently and without coal - obviously). A nuclear reactor produces a lot of energy constantly, but a railgun needs a lot more, but delivered in a short burst. I think some of the problems have been in producing some kind of capacitors that will charge up and release the energy on demand without exploding or welding the projectile armature to the rails.
 
The biggest problem with these things is not necessarily getting them to fire, but getting an effective power source on board a ship - they are incredibly power-hungry at the moment (which might change as the technology improves).
Click to expand...

Correct. Firing a railgun - easy. Firing the same railgun twice....harder.

Some footage from the General Atomics railgun
here


The original aim was to put it on the CGX (a nuclear powered cruiser-scale version of the DDX Zumwalt-class destroyer, since canned). Regardless, whichever ship it's placed on, big banks of accumulators/capacitors are in the works. DDX, like type 45, is an all-electric ship with a very flexible power supply - it was intended that it was going to end up with something - lasers, railguns, something of that order.

From a more practical - if less destructive - angle, there is also a just-about-ready-for-service electromagnetic (rather than steam) aircraft catapult: see here
 
The railgun program has survived a proposed cut by the US Senate. And there are two variants that are supposed to be tested soon, not just one. Yay for miltech! :)

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/02/rail-gun/
 
Let's load some flechette and smoke a few aircraft.
I'm going to go dig up my older brother and I's analysis of what railgun tech would mean for the navy. AA comes to mind.
 
The railguns they are working on are meant to be main armament for a ship, in some ways to replace the anti-ship missiles and land-attack missiles. Though in theory there is no reason why the tech couldn't be scaled down for smaller gatling-type point-defense weapons.

They gotta get the power requirements down for many ships to mount those energy-hungry puppies.
 
phavoc said:
The railguns they are working on are meant to be main armament for a ship, in some ways to replace the anti-ship missiles and land-attack missiles. Though in theory there is no reason why the tech couldn't be scaled down for smaller gatling-type point-defense weapons.

They gotta get the power requirements down for many ships to mount those energy-hungry puppies.
Click to expand...
Who said anything about small-scale? I'm thinking canister! :twisted:
 
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