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Feral
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Joined: 25-Mar-2004 00:00
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 Posted: 14-May-2004 10:26 Post subject: More on real world Gauss rifles |
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Popular science has a great new article on future weapons (being tested today). Here's the link ... http://www.popsci.com/popsci/aviation/article/0,12543,636378,00.html
Picture this: A massive destroyer receives the location coordinates of an enemy headquarters more than 200 miles away. Instead of launching a million-dollar Tomahawk cruise missile, it points a gun barrel in the direction of the target, diverts electric power from the ship's engine to the gun turret, and launches a 3-foot-long, 40-pound projectile up a set of superconducting rails. The projectile leaves the barrel at hypersonic velocity--Mach 7-plus--exits the Earth's atmosphere, re-enters under satellite guidance, and lands on the building less than six minutes later; its incredible velocity vaporizes the target with kinetic energy alone.
The U.S. Navy is developing an electromagnetic railgun that will turn destroyers into super-long-range machine guns--able to fire up to a dozen relatively inexpensive projectiles every minute. The Navy is collaborating with the British Ministry of Defence, which has a similar effort under way. In 2003, its facility in Kirkcudbright, Scotland, hosted a 1/8-scale test of an electromagnetic railgun that produced stable flight in a projectile fired out of the barrel at Mach 6. But Capt. Roger McGinnis, program manager for directed energy weapons at Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, D.C., estimates the U.S. version won't be "deliverable" until 2015 at the earliest.
The technology behind the electromagnetic railgun has been around for more than 20 years, but early efforts wilted because of the huge power requirements: No ship could generate or store enough electricity to fire the gun. The concept was revived a few years ago when the Navy announced plans for its next-generation battleship, the all-electric DD(X). "In the past, destroyers had 90 percent of their power tied to propulsion," explains McGinnis. "But with DD(X), you can divert the power to whatever you need. We can stop the ship and fire the railgun as many times as we need, then divert the power back to the screws."
The barrel of the electromagnetic railgun will contain two parallel conducting rails about 20 feet long, bridged by a sliding armature. In the current design, electric current travels up one rail, crosses the armature, and heads down the second rail. The loop induces a magnetic field that pushes the armature, and the projectile aboard it, up the rails.
The challenges that remain include ensuring that the gun can target enemy sites with precision, and creating equipment that can withstand the gargantuan pressures the gun will create. "Right now, guns are only as accurate as the targeting of the bore, and now we're talking about 200-plus-mile ranges, so there has to be aerodynamic correction," says Fred Beach, the assistant program manager for the electromagnetic railgun at Naval Sea Systems Command. The projectile, he says, will receive course correction information from satellites and will steer itself with movable control surfaces. And because the projectile will be subjected to up to 45,000 Gs during firing, the onboard electronics must be strengthened to withstand the acceleration. Forces inside the gun itself--particularly getting the armature to move easily within the system--are also challenging the designers. "Getting two pieces of metal to slide past each other is pretty hard--we're getting a lot of damage to the rails," Beach says.
The electromagnetic railgun's projectiles will cover 290 miles in six minutes--initially traveling 8,200 feet per second and hitting their target at 5,000 feet per second. Current Navy guns, which shoot powder-ignited explosive shells, have a maximum range of 12 miles and, because they are unguided, are difficult to aim. Though guided missiles, the current long-range alternative for destroyers, can achieve ranges comparable to that of the electromagnetic railgun, their cost and storage problems are what's driving the efforts to find an alternative. Ships can only carry up to 70 guided missiles and must return to port to restock because the missiles cannot be loaded at sea, whereas railgun projectiles can easily be loaded at sea, and by the hundreds. Also appealing is that the electromagnetic railgun's missiles do not contain volatile explosives; the weapon does its work with kinetic energy.
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Oafman
Draconis Combine
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Joined: 18-Nov-2003 00:00
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| Posted: 14-May-2004 10:51 Post subject: RE: More on real world Gauss rifles |
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That is cool. A little scary as well, that this kind of technology is within our reach.
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Wanallo
Federated Suns
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Joined: 02-Jan-2004 00:00
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Location: United Kingdom
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| Posted: 14-May-2004 11:51 Post subject: RE: More on real world Gauss rifles |
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Ahh! Don't Worry lads, well be building those Atlas's soon,
I also read somewhere that the US and UK (partners in crime  ) Are working on a form of Autocannon, a new for of autoloading 105mm gun which can pull off 4 shots in a 2 second burst.
I don't know how true this is because i cannot see the practicallities of having a fast firing Tank, when the M1A2 Abrahams and the Challenger II can pretty much knock out anything in one shot, including each other (as we found out several times in Iraq!) 
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Oafman
Draconis Combine
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| Posted: 14-May-2004 13:19 Post subject: RE: More on real world Gauss rifles |
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The purpose of building bigger and better guns, when we are already on top? You mean we have to have a purpose? 
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Seraph
Blighted Sun Battalion
2nd Company
"Seraph's Slaughter"
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| Posted: 14-May-2004 15:30 Post subject: RE: More on real world Gauss rifles |
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Sure they can take down most armored vehicles with one shot NOW. But in a few years....who knows.
To stay on top you have to have the best yesterday rather than tomorrow, for someone else may have it today.
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DarkAdder
Clan Star Adder
Star Commander
Joined: 10-Jan-2004 00:00
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| Posted: 14-May-2004 16:13 Post subject: RE: More on real world Gauss rifles |
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At one point, someone described the American Way of Doing Stuff as 'Bigger, Louder, Faster'. As such, i think the prototype AC counts as Bigger and Louder...
At one point the 'Crusader' (I think it was) artillery vehicle was on the drawing board. The barrel was liquid cooled, meaning that the Crusader could launch four or five shells in under a minute, and time them to hit the target at the same moment.
That, and we like big guns that make bigger booms.
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Gangrene
Federated Suns
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Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
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Location: United States
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| Posted: 14-May-2004 19:51 Post subject: RE: More on real world Gauss rifles |
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So the gauss rifle range has been extended to:
short: 0 - 3560
medium: 3561 - 7120
long: 7121 - 10,680
[ This Message was edited by: Gangrene on 2004-05-15 10:29 ]
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DarkAdder
Clan Star Adder
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| Posted: 14-May-2004 22:47 Post subject: RE: More on real world Gauss rifles |
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must be an ER Gauss Rifle.
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Nightmare
Lyran Alliance
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| Posted: 14-May-2004 23:46 Post subject: RE: More on real world Gauss rifles |
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I see one serious problem with that rail gun. The destroyer is drifting or moving very slow while it uses the weapon since it requires so much power. It will take time to get back to full power, and that's not good at sea.
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Seraph
Blighted Sun Battalion
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| Posted: 15-May-2004 00:22 Post subject: RE: More on real world Gauss rifles |
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Ummm...can it drain a nuclear reactor of it's power?
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Motown Scrapper
Clan Ice Hellions
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Joined: 24-Jul-2003 00:00
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| Posted: 15-May-2004 00:36 Post subject: RE: More on real world Gauss rifles |
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Quote:
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On 2004-05-14 23:46, Nightmare wrote:
I see one serious problem with that rail gun. The destroyer is drifting or moving very slow while it uses the weapon since it requires so much power. It will take time to get back to full power, and that's not good at sea.
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Not necessarily generally a reactor is used to heat water to make steam .For this application the steam is used ti turn a turbine that would then turn a dynamo so it would be a simple matter to switch the electric power from the rail gun to electric motors (turbo-electric drive has been used in warships since the 1920s and is now used in modern nuclear submarines) there would not be any run-up time other than acceleration from a dead stop.
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Bullfrog
Draconis Combine
Gunjin
Joined: 06-Mar-2004 00:00
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| Posted: 15-May-2004 08:20 Post subject: RE: More on real world Gauss rifles |
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Well they could at least rename it TO the Gauss rifle.
It won't drain the nuclear reactor, it will just require all of it's power output for that moment, and discharge any capacitors/storage cells that happen to be linked up. Kinda like firing a Big Bertha in Total Annihilation.
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Wanallo
Federated Suns
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Joined: 02-Jan-2004 00:00
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| Posted: 15-May-2004 08:33 Post subject: RE: More on real world Gauss rifles |
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Total Annihilation?
Wow that takes me back a few years, brilliant game!
'All bow down to the almighty, the indestructable, the unstoppable....PEEWEE!'
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Oafman
Draconis Combine
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| Posted: 17-May-2004 11:54 Post subject: RE: More on real world Gauss rifles |
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Besides, if the battleship is under personal attack I doubt they would fire a gun that would drain that much power. Think back to the last 100 years worth of naval bombardments of land targets. The destroyers and battleship are well our of harms way when firing. That is also why we have carriers. Fighter cover really helps protect this type of ship.
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Nightmare
Lyran Alliance
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| Posted: 17-May-2004 12:56 Post subject: RE: More on real world Gauss rifles |
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There are other reasons to stay moving than keeping attackers at bay. The sea is not a place where you can play around.
Carriers and their aircraft can't safely attack things if the weather is bad, but at least the ship is under power and stays afloat. The new destroyer will have to do the same.
Ordinary naval guns are inaccurate compared to the rail gun, but they can be used for bombardment in any weather.
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