Autolycus
Member
I wanted to add, that this rail gun is still weak compared to a 10mm. 
Most Recent Iteration of the Navy Railgun!
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Mr.454
Member
There are no countermeasures to protect your ship from a railgun. There as plenty of countermeasures to protect your ship from missiles. So if you put these on a few of our stealth boats and have them ahead of our carrier groups....just use your imagination. The other problem missiles give you away you fire one and they now have an idea of your location, not with a gun like the railgun.
Certaindeaf
member
Got fjord?
R.W.Dale
Member
There's no reason other than a lack of time that an incoming projectile from a railgun cannot be tracked on radar and its origin determined.
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Probably not. With average ranges of both side's missiles in the hundreds of miles , a missile launch would not really give you away...what gives each side away is the radar systems installed on satellites over head. Considering whole-ocean surveillance with a satellite mounted radar system is nothing new since the early 1970's, I would be very surprised if both sides in a naval conflict do not know where exactly each other's ships are at every moment of the day and night.
Plus, some things to think about the 1970's Soviet P700 Granit anti-ship missile has a range of 625 km, and a cruising speed of Mach 2.5 with network capability for 8 missiles to function as a unified missile swarm to defeat a single target. Time from cresting the horizon to impact is about 25-30 seconds.
As for the usefulness of modern day cannons in naval engagements...they are about on par with knives in a 600-yard hill to hill firefight. 20km range vs 625km range...
Where I see the rail-gun platform as shining is in cheap fire-support for littoral conflicts.
Mr.454
Member
My thoughts are based on using a stealth boat with the main gun mounted as low to the deck as you can get it. Then much like a harpoon missile you could fire it nice and low where it is hard to see or track. Not to mention cost benefits.... guided missiles cost a fortune, slugs cost very little.
rbernie
Contributing Member
Off topic posts have been deleted. Continued posting of geopolitical commentary will earn infractions for the folk posting such things, and get this thread locked down.
Let's not, ok?
Let's not, ok?
More railgun talk, less political talk folks.
I think the projectile looks like a piston and piston rod because it is a Sabot round, and the Sabot disintegrates instantly as it leaves the muzzle. Remember, it shoots using lots of magnets in the barrel so no rifling or friction, except air friction.
I think the projectile looks like a piston and piston rod because it is a Sabot round, and the Sabot disintegrates instantly as it leaves the muzzle. Remember, it shoots using lots of magnets in the barrel so no rifling or friction, except air friction.
Shadow 7D
Member
I would imagine the EMP pulse of the railgun discharging would be pretty easy to pick up with the right sensors, easier than the launch flare of the current ocean hugging ASM's
Oh, and yeah radar can pick them up, just not very well (why do ships mount a CWIS when you talk miles in a naval engagement??) and until the pop up or get within the limited low level envelope they are pretty much unseen by ship board radars, that's why you have radar planes looking down.
Oh, and yeah radar can pick them up, just not very well (why do ships mount a CWIS when you talk miles in a naval engagement??) and until the pop up or get within the limited low level envelope they are pretty much unseen by ship board radars, that's why you have radar planes looking down.
TurtlePhish
Member
How they work, for those who are curious.
Taken from Wikipedia.
EvilGenius
Member
This.
There's plenty of ways to detect and possibly intercept these incoming rounds.
The advantage is that physically all you need to fire one of these projectiles is the projectile itself. No more having to bother with loaded casings or powder charges. Leaves tons of room for more ammo.
Also, I imagine that these things are computer controlled through and through. Not many powder based munitions can have the amount of energy put into them altered as the bullet travels down the barrel.
wannabeagunsmith
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Hopefully China dosen't copy this....slim chance they won't though. It will be interesting when they get more of these mounted on ships. Perhaps they could also be useful for anti aircraft?
Copying one of these things is not an issue, the underlying technology is overall very simple. Two conductive rails, a capacitor bank, a power supply, and that's it. There's videos on youtube of guys building small scale rail guns that when dialed up approximate a .22lr in power, that were built using junk and scrap components (note: Dont try this at home!). As with everything the question is not "can it be done" but "is it worth it" so, while the rail gun offers some interesting direct fire capabilities, the question is would you rather develop and install a rail gun on 1 ship, or buy/build 500 sea-skimming anti-ship missiles, or 50 missiles and 10 corvettes to carry those 50 missiles.
One interesting point that WBGS raises: use of these things as a CIWS system. Dial down the projectile weight, build a slick auto-loading system and your rate of fire would only be limited on how fast you can load slugs into the chamber. (Rails constantly energized, so no need to energize and discharge capacitor banks, rate of fire is only limited by the time it takes a single projectile to move from the breach to the muzzle)
One interesting point that WBGS raises: use of these things as a CIWS system. Dial down the projectile weight, build a slick auto-loading system and your rate of fire would only be limited on how fast you can load slugs into the chamber. (Rails constantly energized, so no need to energize and discharge capacitor banks, rate of fire is only limited by the time it takes a single projectile to move from the breach to the muzzle)
TurtlePhish
Member
I did this.
It was actually pretty easy... two cheap aluminum rails side by side, hooked up to a bank of eight 330v photoflash capacitors in parallel. It made a big flash and lots of sparks and a loud POP and send a piece of foil flying and burning.
LJ-MosinFreak-Buck
Member
Anybody who is a welder, or has welded before has heard of or used a Plasma Arc Cutter, which through operation, does something similar to what this rail gun does upon discharging. No, a Plasma Arc Cutter doesn't shoot a projectile, but what it does to cut is it ionizes and excites air molecules using electricity. The air is forced through a cone in the cutting tip and gets super-hot (26,000°+) coming out of the tip. This is how it can cut metal so fast.
The fireball coming out of the rail gun, like another member said, is plasma. Super-hot air.
The fireball coming out of the rail gun, like another member said, is plasma. Super-hot air.
EvilGenius
Member
Can we make a flash suppressor for it?
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