Rail Gun Pumps Rounds At Swarms

DoD Buzz ^ | Greg Grant

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

One of the more intriguing technologies spotted at this week’s Navy League Sea-Air-Space Expo was General Atomics’ electromagnetic rail cannon. The company has been working for a number of years with the Office of Naval Research on a 200-nautical mile gun system. In a parallel effort, they’ve been developing a smaller, pulse-power technology demonstrator, called the Blitzer, for ship defense against anti-ship cruise missiles and small boat swarms.

Two million amps launch a guided projectile at twice the speed of a conventional gun, but at much lower cost than the usual surface-to-air missile systems on most naval ships. General Atomics is working on a cannon that can launch an airburst round at a rate of one per second. Each round dispenses sub-projectiles, so its equivalent to firing 14,000 rounds a minute, which is a higher rate of fire than the Phalanx close-in weapons system, says Tom Hurn, General Atomics director of advanced weapons systems.

[LouAvul]

I want one.

[Leo Farnsworth]

Two million amps.

Wow!

[DoughtyOne]

Is there any secret project whatsoever these days?

We have known about these weapons for some time, but it drives me crazy to see them talked about so casually in the media. Sure we’re working on them. Do we need to make announcements every step of the way?

I’m not addressing your post here at all, but loose lips sink ships.

Why put out so much information so other nations can be forewarned about what they need to circumvent to attack us?

[mgstarr]

[knarf]

here

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

[dila813]

When I was in the Navy, part of the justification for retiring the Battleships was that this technology would be available on ships soon making them obsolete.

Well, still not deployed.

We effectively need all the 5” guns replaced with Rails and we need this type of Medium Range Anti-Missile capability less than we need the replacement of the main guns.

Without the Battleships, we have a large chink in our armor.

[Still Thinking]

Rods TO God?

[American Constitutionalist]

Yeah, but, can it cook eggs and bacon in less than 10 seconds ?

[I see my hands]

Probably has one of those internal safety locks and only shoots micro etched ammo.

[American Constitutionalist]

" Is there any secret project whatsoever these days?"

One would think that it's past the development stage and possibly already operational.
One would think that once the public is aware of it, it's already been in use and other projects are " Secret "

[DoughtyOne]

I think that’s a reasoned observation. Once operational, I still don’t see the need to spell out for our enemies what our resources are. I’m not trying to be combative with you based on your observation though. Take care.

[American Constitutionalist]

From the look of that picture, it can hit it’s target 100-200 miles away in a direct trajectory ( no ark ) and hit fast.

[American Constitutionalist]

I agree with you 100 % , no need for our enemies to know about what we have and how many.

[Rumplemeyer]

Glad I am on our side.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks for the note of agreement.

[VaRepublican]

Hard to sell to our enemies if they don't know about them. remember we're a “global economy” now...

[Right Wing Assault]

Why put out so much information so other nations can be forewarned about what they need to circumvent to attack us?

The same thing with terrorists. They tell every secret of how they captured the guy, what mistakes he made, and why his bomb wasn't any good.

Why can't they STFU about some of this??

[2aberro]

Is there any secret project whatsoever these days?

FYI,,,, I personally knew of someone working on this type of project at Eglin AFB 20 years ago, this is not new technology.

[Thunder90]

I want to see development of a railgun that launches nuclear weapons.

[dangerdoc]

bump

[DoughtyOne]

LOL

[DoughtyOne]

Exactly! The other night they were saying how lame it was that he didn’t provide shrapnel materials like bolts and things, to cause more damage.

I’m sitting there with my jaw dropped, thinking I’d like to hit the announcer in the head with a hammer.

“Well they had a nuclear weapon, but they forgot this one little piece or it would have worked. Go to www.?????.com. We have a diagram there for you to review”

[driftdiver]

“Two million amps.”

Adding power to the old adage that its not the watts that kills you, its the amps.

[DaxtonBrown]

Now that’s a fun job. “She blowed up Reeeel good!”

[Erasmus]

You gotta wonder what the fuse looks like on that suckah!

[arthurus]

These things are old news. I remember reading about them half a century ago in a publication called Astounding.

[The KG9 Kid]

It can fire to the horizon in 6 seconds?

Soooo... ~= 23 miles in six seconds.

No kidding it doesn't need explosives. Anything it hits will itself become an explosive.

I wouldn't want to be inside a mile or two of whatever gets hit with something traveling that speed. That projectile would blow a blacksmith's anvil to pebble sized fragments and launch them a mile in all directions, I bet.

[A.A. Cunningham]

the old adage that its not the watts that kills you, its the amps.

the old adage that it's not the volts that kills you, its the amps.

[driftdiver]

ack, I screwed it up trying to be funny

[OneWingedShark]

That projectile would blow a blacksmith’s anvil to pebble sized fragments and launch them a mile in all directions, I bet.

Maybe not; it might just go through the anvil. {and spew a lot of molten-iron out the ‘exit wound.’}

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

“Catapultam habeo. (I have a catapult. Unless you)
Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, give me all the money, I will)
ad caput tuum saxum immane (throw an enormous rock at your head)
mittam.”

[The KG9 Kid]

I did some thinking about what would likely happen, and I still think that cast iron anvil would be shattered and blown to Hell and gone.

[OneWingedShark]

>Obama’s policies may spur nuclear proliferation

Looks like we have a situation in need of a field test. ;)

[OneWingedShark]

...sorry, I apparently only pressed Ctrl and didn’t hit the ‘C.’