We’re finally ready for Godzilla
Finally, after 50 years of development the Navy has developed a weapon that fires a bullet powerful enough to take out Godzilla according to Fox News. Here’s the video;
Rather than relying on a explosion to fire a projectile, the technology uses an electomagnetic current to accelerate a non-explosive bullet at several times the speed of sound. The conductive projectile zips along a set of electrically charged parallel rails and out of the barrel at speeds up to Mach 7.
The result: a weapon that can hit a target 100 miles or more away within minutes.
Now if we can just get Godzilla to stand in front of the building, we’ll be all set.
Thanks to Old Trooper for the link.
Category: Military issues
It’s electromagnetics that power the monorail systems, isn’t it? Pretty amazing stuff!
The “Rail Gun” lives! As you mention, they’ve been developing it for a long, long time. I think they’ll need to shrink it down a little to fit on a satellite, as some of the more imaginative plans call for…..
“The Science Fiction of today is the reality of tomorrow.”
Exciting and terrifying, all at the same time.
how do they stabilize the projectile at that speed let alone keep if from fragmenting from the centrifugal force the spin would generate to make it fly?
Okay, so we see the weapon fire. What about the target? One would assume (Or hope and pray) that it hit what it was aimed at.
jonp,
Google “Rail Gun” and you find a lot if interesting stuff. At this point I don’t think they apply spin to the projectile. So far a muzzle velocity of over 8,000 ft/s, with twice that expected in later models. Part of the problem seems to be the forces acting on the gun itself – it wants to self-destruct with each shot!
Oooo….that’s not good. Especially when you’re out at sea! LOL!
Anybody want to try shooting from the hip with this baby?
It looks cool, but I doubt that there can be anything as awe inspiring as an Iowa class opening up with its main battery.
Two points about this:
1.) No need of explosives. the impact of 33 MegaJoules of energy will take out pretty much anything. Think of 2000 pounds of steel traveling at 3300mph.
2.) It WILL require larger hulled vessels with nuke plants in order to generate the power need for the system.
All in all, though, it’s a neat system and one that, with a projected 200 mile range, will cause all sorts of fits for our enemies. As it should… 🙂
Hell, I can do that after a heavy night of drinking and a few chili cheeseburgers.
LT: Hell, all you need is a 6 pack of PBR and a sack of 10 sliders from White Castle!
I loves me some PBR. Red Necks, White Socks, and Blue Ribbon Beer! God Bless America.
Conventional guns already fire regular bullets at Mach 6 (~4000 fps – see 220 Swift). I’m sure there are lesser-known rifle calibers with even greater velocity. I’m trying really hard to be impressed here boss, but I’m having trouble believing this isn’t just a megadollar boondoggle.
It still destroys its tracks every time it’s fired. It fires light plastic projectiles with little momentum or penetration, but with great velocity, which provides the high energy numbers. The “record-setting” achievement is merely an improvement on a previous railgun record.
It’s all pretty nifty high-tech stuff, but I really doubt it will ever become a usable weapon, except in video games. The article reads like “don’t slash our funding” P.R. of the sort NASA’s been putting out lately.
Sadly, DU and HE rounds are not magnetic. Birdshot won’t withstand the acceleration. Optical and moving parts (think guidance) can’t take hypersonic air friction. The ranges where a rail gun could be useful are impossible to target accurately with dumb projectiles. This project is another dead end, that some senator won’t let die. That’s why we get to see the video.
I feel a little dumb posting a silly comment after the observations of #10, 14 and 15, but was it a rail gun that was the weapon of choice to destroy one of the Decepticons on the pyramid of Giza in Transformers II… (And yes, I did read the entire article about the actual weapon, and its capabilities and deficiencies were duly noted.)
Now, if we put a wave motion gun in the bow of a WWII battleship, that’d get my curlies straightened.
yes Spock Girl on USS Kidd. Unfortunately it would be next to impossible to hide an operational rail gun on an Arliegh Burke.
I Agree in principle Chuck, but you know engineers, give them a problem and they’ll come up with a really wacky solution. DU is not in itself magnetic, but no one said the whole round had to be magnetic, and if they can figure a way to make a drone version of the SR-71 I’m sure some egghead somewhere is coming up with a really clever solution. Unfortunately you’re right this would HAVE to be a Nuke vessel. We may actually see an all nuke navy if they implement it. what I really want to see is the return of the Battle Wagon.
FWIW, one of the spinoffs of this program is a magnetic catapult system to replace the Navy’s steam-driven cats on Carriers. It has a LOT of advantages, and a few unique problems. More here:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/systems/emals.htm
Need to step a little carefully here, but:
Current rail guns are not practical or much else, but are clearing the way for a lot of technology development that will kick things up a few notches. Honestly, I suspect that the control systems and such being developed are almost as important as anything else.
Where the real work lies is in the development of smaller, more efficient and less power intensive magnetic field generators. So-called room-temperature superconductors and related items are the key to that, as is power source development. Suffice it to say that there is a lot of work in development that can help take the different parts and turn them into a truly workable weapon. As in a weapon that is portable, doesn’t require the energy of a small city, and will put payload out at something much closer to relativistic speeds. DU and similar are not magnetic, but can either be coated or used in a sabot round (note the sabot rounds here). At the low-end of the speeds being considered, the rounds will effectively be straight-line to at least the distance of the moon, and something the size of a BB is going to be capable of going long-ways through most ships. Now, think about something like that which is man-portable, has a few thousand rounds in a magazine, and said magazines are easily changed out very much like current systems. Paging John Ringo…
Engineering prototypes like this are not practical in any sense of the word, but allow the problems to be identified and basic engineering developed. Lots of good things will come from that fundamental science and engineering effort, such as what AW1 Tim points out.
In #16, by “silly” I meant tongue in cheek.