Railguns!

[Husky_Khan]

At a mere sixteen years old, and one famous tributary appearance in Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen where it shot the testicles off of a giant sized evil Decepticon (peak cinema there), the US Navy Railgun is no longer being funded. The project looks to be placed in storage and its research preserved and utilized in other similar endeavors such as the development of a hypervelocity shell that can be fired from 5 inch naval guns or 155mm howitzers at speeds of Mach 3 as well as potentially advancing research into various hypersonic missile platforms such as the SM-6 Block 1B.

In land based testing the ONR (Office of Navy Research) said one of their two railgun experiments could fire a slug at 4500 miles per hour, or six times the speed of sound. The eventual goal of the project however was to create a prototype that could be mounted on a ship to target everything from enemy vessels to missiles from ranges of up to a 100 miles away.

The Navy's Railgun Looks Like It's Finally Facing The Axe In New Budget Request

The Navy has been working to make the idea of a railgun an operational reality since 2005.

www.thedrive.com

 

[Sailor.X]

Me thinks the US Navy Laser Cannon Program must be further along and they are going for that. Here is the secret the US Navy has been working on the Laser back when I was still in 30 years ago. It is much more advanced than what you see in the media. They tested it in the weapons range down near Puerto Rico back during the early 90s.

 

[Spartan303]

Hypersonic missiles have a range from a thousand to 1500 miles. The Railgun only offers up to 100 miles. With extreme distances like that, it isn't hard to see why. Shame though. I really wanted to see the Railgun in action.

 

[Arlos]

Noooo! Not the railgun! 😭

 

[bintananth]

Noooo! Not the railgun! 😭

I wouldn't be surprised if the railgun was just an expensive distraction meant to keep prying eyes focused away from whatever the USN was actually working on.

 

[Bacle]

Hypersonic missiles have a range from a thousand to 1500 miles. The Railgun only offers up to 100 miles. With extreme distances like that, it isn't hard to see why. Shame though. I really wanted to see the Railgun in action.

The hypersonic 5 inch rounds are the real boon from the whole railgun program.

Those are great anti-missile weapons, have more mag depth than missiles, and are less finicky in handling than missiles.

Plus, well..if we really need to, we have a lot of five-inchers sitting in reserve and museum ships that can be reactivated in an emergency.

Also lets arty battlions double as anti-missile/AA battalions.

 

[bintananth]

The hypersonic 5 inch rounds are the real boon from the whole railgun program.

Those are great anti-missile weapons, have more mag depth than missiles, and are less finicky in handling than missiles.

Plus, well..if we really need to, we have a lot of five-inchers sitting in reserve and museum ships that can be reactivated in an emergency.

Also lets arty battlions double as anti-missile/AA battalions.

Those old 5" guns aren't compatable with modern hypersonic shells.

The 5"/38 fired shells which weigh about 54lbs and have a maximum range of about 9 miles.

 

[Bacle]

Those old 5" guns aren't compatable with modern hypersonic shells.

The 5"/38 fired shells which weigh about 54lbs and have a maximum range of about 9 miles.

Yes, but that is matter of changing out the barrel and maybe chamber; the mountings and turret assemblies are the other important bit you'd get from reserve and other ships.

We may not have time to spare for brand new hulls, if things go loud with China.

That Vice Minister defecting completely changed the ball game and possibly time line with China.

 

[History Learner]

Hypersonic missiles have a range from a thousand to 1500 miles. The Railgun only offers up to 100 miles. With extreme distances like that, it isn't hard to see why. Shame though. I really wanted to see the Railgun in action.

IIRC, isn't the theoretical range of railguns thousands of miles if properly developed?

 

[bintananth]

Yes, but that is matter of changing out the barrel and maybe chamber; the mountings and turret assemblies are the other important bit you'd get from reserve and other ships.

You say that like it's easy, but it's not.

Guns, and the cartridges they use, are not interchangeable.

9mm Parabellum and 9mm Glisinti are almost the exact same size. Using Parabellum with a firearm designed for Glisinti might cost you a limb.

 

[Spartan303]

IIRC, isn't the theoretical range of railguns thousands of miles if properly developed?

No, not really.

 

[Vaermina]

Hypersonic missiles have a range from a thousand to 1500 miles. The Railgun only offers up to 100 miles. With extreme distances like that, it isn't hard to see why. Shame though. I really wanted to see the Railgun in action.

The advantage of railguns isn't range, it's projectile cost.

 

[Spartan303]

The advantage of railguns isn't range, it's projectile cost.

True. But its costing an arm and a leg to get the gun working like the Navy wants. Look, I agree I'd like to keep the Railgun around, but this is what it is.

 

[Aaron Fox]

The biggest problem is that our material science isn't there yet. We're still in a single hundred rounds range when, to replace the conventional guns, you'll need something on the order of five hundred. If the USN's ETC program didn't get axed, we'll probably be using ETC guns right now.

 

[Zachowon]

There are plenty of other technology in the works.
Like shit I can't even see.

 

[Husky_Khan]

In order to counter HYPERSONIC CHICOM MISSILES...



Japan is investing in railguns for missile defense, including hypersonic missile defense apparently.

There were some articles from earlier in the year about it as well.

Japan allocates $56 million toward developing electric railgun for missile defense

Japan is pushing ahead with efforts to field an electrically powered railgun capable of firing projectiles six times the speed of sound and defending against hypersonic missiles.

www.stripes.com

 

[Bear Ribs]

Did they use Minecraft to design their railgun?

 

[Spartan303]

Perhaps if we shared our Railgun technology with them, we could jointly develop it together. One of the main reasons the US shelved it was due to the sheer costs of developing the technology. With a partner, we could cut that down.

 

[Pocky Balboa]

Did they use Minecraft to design their railgun?

Pfft, can't be, not elaborate enough to kill a dragon plus it doesn't look like it can be activated with a bow and arrow.

 

[Bacle]

It occurs to me that the Japanese gun is not a bad size to act as a weapon for any...'weaponized' mech statues they have around.