US Navy Tests Supersonic Heavy Gun Firing Magnetically-Propelled Shells @ Mach 7

Reaganite Republican ^ | March 2, 2012 | Reaganite Republican

[Reaganite Republican]

'a game-changer'

British multinational BAE Systems has developed a functioning prototype of a new artillery piece for the US Navy's testing purposes, and what it does is propel a specially-designed shell to high supersonic velocities (cca 5600 mph) via powerful magnetic rails. At Mach 7, the projectile arrives almost three times as fast as the Navy's current big guns can deliver one, and at an astonishing range of 50-100 nautical miles (!) The new technology is now undergoing testing in Virginia.

Considering that today's naval artillery can reach only about
15 mi -and that long-range cruise missiles poke-along at a leisurely 550mph- it's easy to see how the daunting new weapon is already being called 'a game-changer'. Other uses quickly come to mind, such as the land, air, of sea based missile-defense systems for which it seems manifestly suited: paired to real-time drone/satellite intelligence and laser-guidance, there's not much a handful of these couldn't stop.

Some experts feel the new gun wouldn't even need to employ explosive shells, as a 40' chunk of metal arriving at over five thousand miles per hour should obliterate pretty much anything that happens to be sitting on Point B:

The USN has already spent seven years and $200M+ on development, with further funding still at the whim of the current US administration, be it a new Republican WH or -heaven forbid- another 4 years of steep decline under the Obammunists. 

A second variation on the theme is about to be delivered to the Navy by competing contractor General Atomics. , and while the (first) BAE gun seems to be performing well as a weapon, residual engineering challenges mostly concern building practical durability into such a mind-bogglingly powerful device... a task that is likely to take a few more years. Various cooling systems are being experimented with at this point in the development cycle, the goal being a capability of 10 rounds/min without melting the hyper-stressed barrel... at a range of up to 

200 nautical miles (!)

This of course comes at a perfect time for the US, as China seems determined to build a blue-water navy to challenge American naval supremacy, missile proliferation continues to run rampant, and the Iranian Navy -as always- could use a sinkin.

Yet hard to believe Obama hasn't tried to cancel this thing yet-

so noisy, unpleasant, polluting, and just mean... who needs that

Video/graphics/more at Reaganite Republican

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British Forces News   The Telegraph   LiveLeak    Fellowship of the Minds

[Yo-Yo]

I am probably wrong, but I didn’t think rail guns had any recoil.

Oh yes they do. You can't repeal Newton's Third Law.

[Eagle of Liberty]

Imagine you started coming under satellite-observed fire at *200 nautical miles* - with a new shell incoming every 6 seconds (!). That would be a bad, bad day.

I did as you said and imagined this and you just made my day!! :D

[skeeter]

Even the crude computers used on board ships in WWII corrected for the spin of the earth.

DKM Scharnhorst hit HMS Glorious at slightly over 15 miles in 1940 (the horizon is about 14 miles). The shell took about 26 seconds to arrive, Glorious would have traveled around a half mile during that time.

Amazing accomplishment for the time, IMO.

[Tallguy]

Should be able to calculate it. We know the muzzle velocity and can make an estimate as to the barrel length.

[Strategerist]

Wonder what the power requirements are for that thing. Would it only be useable on something with a nuke power plant?

Well, the 64MJ, 200 nm range gun concept has already pretty much been abandoned.

For 32MJ you don't need a nuke but you do need a ship with an electric/hybrid power system that can easily shift large amounts of power between propulsion, the gun, radars, etc.

[SharpRightTurn]

“Given today’s loose lipped administration, I wonder if the CHinese already have theirs up and running.”

That was also my first thought: how quickly will the Obummer administration be able to transfer the technology to the ChiComs?

[theBuckwheat]

see:

Rods from God
Space-launched darts that strike like meteors

Popular Science June, 2004:

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2004-06/rods-god

[The_Media_never_lie]

I wouldn’t eve want to try to repeal Newtons 3rd law.

[Strategerist]

It will end up at 20,000-45,000 g

[agere_contra]

I guess you could fire a stream of semi-guideable projectiles 6 seconds apart: all the shells would need is the ability to get some kind of optic on the target, track the shell in front and to push out/pull in small control surfaces.

Then you could program shots #2, #3, etc to pick up deflection data from the previous shots. That would work out as a 6 second lead time with a ‘learning’ bullet stream fired from 200 miles away. Ouch!

[Little Ray]

Well, among other things, your fire control has to take in to consideration the rotation of the Earth (read about the Paris Gun, aka “Big Bertha”).
After that GPS or terminal guidance systems help, too.

[tacticalogic]

One other consideration. If you’re using rail guns, you aren’t having to carry around explosive shells, or a powder magazine.

[agere_contra]

Newtons 3rd law is a racist hang-over of imperial white oppression. Why shouldn't people be allowed to have unequal reactions, you, you momentophobe?

[blueunicorn6]

Ohhhh...kind of like when I set up my slot car track in the basement and aimed it at the stairway door and fired a Mustang into Dad because I thought my friend Jimmy was coming downstairs. Hit Dad below the belt. I managed to jump over Dad and escape up the stairs and outside before Dad recovered, but the slot car set went into the garbage. Maybe the Navy could use Chevy Volts as ammunition. They would have the additional benefit of being on fire as they came zipping in. Flaming Chevy Volts screaming into your ships at mach 7.....the horror.....the horror.

[GeronL]

The retired battleship guns could reach more than 23 miles with an 1800 pound projectile.

[agere_contra]

LOL. Plus selling the pay-per-view rights to the spectacle of the Volt-bombardment of (say) Mecca would earn enough to pay for eight more navies.

[Vinnie]

Wow, I was just thinking that this gun in orbit would be the cat’s a$$.

[Tallguy]

Oh man! I’m laughing my -ss off and coffee is going everywhere!

[Eagle of Liberty]

If this thing is firing that fast can you actually lob a shell or would the trajectory cause it to over shoot?

Would be one hell of a lob, but the competition definitely would not see it coming! Remember, the trajectory could even be into space as in an ICBM.

[Calvin Locke]

Even the crude computers used on board ships in WWII corrected for the spin of the earth.

Heck, during WWI, the guys aiming the Paris Gun had to figure in the Earth's rotation as well. They hit Paris from 75 miles away.