Warporn: New Navy railgun sets records for megajoules, awesomeness
posted at 9:47 pm on February 1, 2008 by Allahpundit
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Ace had this yesterday but I hadn’t recovered from the awesomeness shock upon viewing it until just a few minutes ago. Hence the delay in posting. Anyway: 32 megajoules. What does that mean?
The Navy’s eventual goal is a ship-mounted railgun that can fire a projectile more than 200 miles at speeds of more than 8,000 feet per second. Context: The Navy’s current MK 45 five-inch gun has a range of just 20 miles.
“But wait, AP,” you say, “I thought a railgun worked purely through electricity. What’s all that combustible stuff coming off the back end?” Answer: It’s pieces of the slug, disintegrating with such tremendous energy that the air around them bursts into flame. I … have to go lie down again.
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I have thought for a while that manned space flight should originate from a electromagnetic rail gun for safety and efficiency for a while.
The way we do space travel now is still pretty primitive. It’s basically a controlled explosion with people on the end of it. It doesn’t seem very safe. . . or as safe as an electromagnetic rail machine. I just don’t think we can get enough power to shoot someone into space like that yet. 200 miles is a good long way without an explosion to get it there though.
ThackerAgency on February 2, 2008 at 5:13 PM
The real question here is just how fast is the projectile traveling when it impacts a target? The further away the target is the less energy it’s gonna have since it’s velocity starts dropping at the end of the barrel. It carries no explosive charge. All damage is due to the kinetic energy of the round. It may have a range of 200 miles but I’m guessing that the energy release at that distance would be fairly small.
Oldnuke on February 2, 2008 at 7:06 PM
Can you vision an Iowa-class battleship with one of these replacing one of the 16″ rifles in each turrent? Or, better yet, a new class of BB(N)s with these installed? I’d re-enlist if they’d let me be the gunney.
Texas Nick 77 on February 2, 2008 at 7:20 PM
The 250 G’s at the start would be real unsafe too - like fatal 100% of the time, I fear. Maybe you could cut that down to 25 G’s if you used a 1600ft track, standing on end, but it would still be a wallop. Maybe that’s why Jules Verne buried his “Columbiad” Earth-to-the-Moon cannon vertically in the ground? Tough to dig a 1600ft deep hole in Florida and keep it dry though…
drunyan8315 on February 3, 2008 at 11:48 PM
Comment pages: « 1 [2]