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.