Author Topic: railguns (Read 887 times)

Nilsen · « **Reply #30 on:** June 23, 2004, 04:31:05 PM »

Yeah rpm, im with him that far and i understand how it works.
The problem as i see it is that now the round/shell provides the power needed for it to move. With the railgun system the tank would have to provide the energy for the projectile and the tank. That energy is limited, and a tank is only practical if its fairly small.
They will prolly solve this, but i think its not gonna happen soon. A ship does not have that problem.

Chairboy · « **Reply #31 on:** June 23, 2004, 04:36:20 PM »

I agree that it's probably not going to happen today, but it's well within reason to expect that'll be something that's feasible in the near future. Remember, each of those rounds is packed with the gunpowder needed to propel it to a target. A gallon of blackpowder contains a LOT less energy then a gallon of diesel, by an order of magnitude.

A railgun round is just the actual payload, so it's small. Every cubic foot saved in weapons volume is a cubic foot that can carry high energy density diesel that can be converted into power to propel the round with terrible force at the enemy.

Nilsen · « **Reply #32 on:** June 23, 2004, 04:40:06 PM »

True.

I guess it would be gps guided and have some sort of contol surface or adjustable nose to guide it........if its used as an artillery shell that is.

anyways... How are you doing after the surgery? sore?

Chairboy · « **Reply #33 on:** June 23, 2004, 04:45:49 PM »

Still sore, but getting better. Thanks for asking! Now if the surgeon has used railgun technology to implant the device, I might not be in as good a shape.

Nilsen · « **Reply #34 on:** June 23, 2004, 05:08:06 PM »

Glad to hear it Chairboy

stiehl · « **Reply #35 on:** June 23, 2004, 07:28:11 PM »

BUN-BUN.

Dune · « **Reply #36 on:** June 23, 2004, 09:03:43 PM »

Next stop,

Chairboy · « **Reply #37 on:** June 23, 2004, 11:04:50 PM »

Heh, I was wondering how long until someone brought up BOLOs.

Bring on the Dinachrome Brigade!

Rino · « **Reply #38 on:** June 23, 2004, 11:50:23 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Chairboy
Another use of railguns that I anticipate is anti-aircraft.

Modern aircraft can detect missiles a few different ways. If the missile is radar homing, it's easy, but even infrared homing missiles can be detected because of the rocket plume.

Imagine this, put an infrared or image tracking seeker and warhead on a rail-gun launched projectile and fire it. A current day fighter would be defenseless against it because it doesn't know it's being fired on. There's no plume warning, no smoke trail for the pilot to see, nada.

I'm betting this technology will also show up in main battle tanks. 30 years from now, I predict that the MBT of the US military will mount a railgun, will perform both anti-armor AND artillery roles, and each tank will be part of a battlefield network that uses distributed sensors to also perform anti-aircraft roles.

Imagine you have fifty of these tanks in a battlefield. Any that are at the front are guns down, taking out armor and defensive positions with direct fire. They can fire hundreds of shots because they're using inert railgun rounds that are tiny compared to modern projectiles (which are huge because they carry their propellent). Any tanks that are more then a few miles behind the current front can be both artillery to hit targets that are out of reach (eg, behind a mountain) of direct fire. All other tanks can be part of an autonomous 'No fly zone' enforcement that fire guided anti-aircraft munitions at targets flying anywhere from NOE to tens of thousands of feet up.

Since this is a pretty straightforward extrapolation based on current trends, I think this is another reason why manned aircraft will be exiting the battlefield of the future. Your standard $50 million fighter will be replaced by 100 $500K fighter drones. Instead of mega planes that dominate everything from angels 30, you'll have hundreds of NOE drones that will dart around, over, and under landscape features and fight it out at 30 feet. Anything else will be easy pickings for the integrated fighting net.

I knew a guy who worked at Piccatiny Arsenal in NJ a few years
back. One of the last projects he was working on before he
retired was a railgun project supposedly mounted in a MBT style
chassis. The neat thing about it was that it supposedly used an
alternator hooked to the gas turbine to provide power.

This was supposed to be superior to the battery design as
you didn't have large amounts of potential energy sitting in the
same vehicle with you unless you wanted to use it.

Comments?