OH yea !!!! Ke=1/2MV^2

[great_big_abyss]

I'm wondering what application this will be used in. As far as I know, big guns, such as the ones seen on battleships and cruisers have been obsolete for a few decades now. Guided missiles have mainly taken over the role of big guns. A missile packs much more of a punch and is potentially more accurate, at the expense of, well, expense. They're not cheap, I suppose. That being said, no power in the world currently operates battleships with big guns. Their roles as capital ships have been taken over by Aircraft Carriers and Missile Cruisers.

One area where big guns might still play a role is in Naval Gunfire Support (NGFS) during amphibious attacks. The Pentagon, and the USMC in particular are studying the role that NGFS will play in future amphibious attacks, and whether or not there is a place for it. AFAIK, the marines are of the opinion that it is still a relevant technology and that currently the US Naval Fleet is currently underpowered when it comes to NGFS.

I suppose that if I let my imagination run wild, one possible use for this technology would be to distance a ship from the detection of a missile launch. A missile could theoretically be 'shot' many miles from the ship (or submarine) and would then 'launch' from its casing to continue its journey towards its designated target. This would potentially allow a stealth missile destroyer or a submarine to remain undetected while the missile is tracked many miles away from where the vessel actually is.

Still, a cool technology that belongs in the annals of 'future tech'.

 

[BrainEater]

You defintely bring up valid points....but ,

"Missiles" only superceeded 'artillery' because of accuracy ,and easy construction.......gps guided shells need to withstand 100x the g's of a missile , hence missiles are cheaper.

Here's the thing tho :

Railguns fire bits of metal.....At velocities that make 25 sticks of TNT seem insignificant.

We need to work on sub-millisecond coursecontrol...........And high-amp rails !!!!!!

:thumb:

 

[moocow]

According the Gizmodo's little article, the end goal is to fire GPS guided rounds. If you consider the speed of a stand-off cruise missile, a hyper sonic projectile is way harder to intercept with AA fire. While I sucked at high school science, wouldn't the energy be adjustable by lowering the speed vs. a missile with a fixed warhead? May be you can even level a building without scratching the one next too it, relatively speaking of course. Don't forget, we can kill Transformers with railguns!

 

[Soultribunal]

I'm wondering what application this will be used in. As far as I know, big guns, such as the ones seen on battleships and cruisers have been obsolete for a few decades now. Guided missiles have mainly taken over the role of big guns. A missile packs much more of a punch and is potentially more accurate, at the expense of, well, expense. They're not cheap, I suppose. That being said, no power in the world currently operates battleships with big guns. Their roles as capital ships have been taken over by Aircraft Carriers and Missile Cruisers.

One area where big guns might still play a role is in Naval Gunfire Support (NGFS) during amphibious attacks. The Pentagon, and the USMC in particular are studying the role that NGFS will play in future amphibious attacks, and whether or not there is a place for it. AFAIK, the marines are of the opinion that it is still a relevant technology and that currently the US Naval Fleet is currently underpowered when it comes to NGFS.

I suppose that if I let my imagination run wild, one possible use for this technology would be to distance a ship from the detection of a missile launch. A missile could theoretically be 'shot' many miles from the ship (or submarine) and would then 'launch' from its casing to continue its journey towards its designated target. This would potentially allow a stealth missile destroyer or a submarine to remain undetected while the missile is tracked many miles away from where the vessel actually is.

Still, a cool technology that belongs in the annals of 'future tech'.

The problem is there are a lot of counter-measures for Cruisemissles. You have the Long range Standard SM2(Mod something or other, its high) for your Long Range Goal'Keeper. Then you have layers and layers of closer in defences (including land targets too). In order for Cruise missles to be effective against a well equipped foe you need Saturation. Thats a lot of $$$$$ to get the job done.

You have a ship with one of these and GPS guided Hypersonic rounds...and I highly doubt something can act fast enough to stop one. Its obsolete tech re-imagined into something far more sophisticated.

-ST

 

[great_big_abyss]

The problem is there are a lot of counter-measures for Cruisemissles. You have the Long range Standard SM2(Mod something or other, its high) for your Long Range Goal'Keeper. Then you have layers and layers of closer in defences (including land targets too). In order for Cruise missles to be effective against a well equipped foe you need Saturation. Thats a lot of $$$$$ to get the job done.

You have a ship with one of these and GPS guided Hypersonic rounds...and I highly doubt something can act fast enough to stop one. Its obsolete tech re-imagined into something far more sophisticated.

-ST

I thought of that, but didn't bring it up. That is a very valid point, when it comes to surface to surface warfare. There is no defense that I can think of that can counter a hypersonic missile. Surely, belt armor (like on battleships of the 20th century) would be ill equipped to stop one of these projectiles. And if the projectile has an explosive warhead, then lookout!!! Against conventional navies, big guns are probably the way to.

On the other hand, I think the armies and navies of today are increasingly preparing themselves to deal with guerrilla type resistances. Currently, the vessels that navies have to be prepared to counter are small, fast and agile boats. By the time you aim and fire one of these electromagnetic missiles, the boat that is 20 miles away presents such a small target and is quick enough that it will have moved out of the trajectory of the missile. And it would seem to me that a missile such as we a talking about has a limited range of maneuvrability. I still think that an actual self propelled guided missile is far more accurate and has a much higher degree of maneuvrability, and would ultimately be more successful against the small vessels which i see modern warships engaging.

Of course, if war ever comes against China, then yes, we could very well see conventional navies duking it out with each other. In which case big guns, and this tech in particular, will have a place.

 

[Soultribunal]

I thought of that, but didn't bring it up. That is a very valid point, when it comes to surface to surface warfare. There is no defense that I can think of that can counter a hypersonic missile. Surely, belt armor (like on battleships of the 20th century) would be ill equipped to stop one of these projectiles. And if the projectile has an explosive warhead, then lookout!!! Against conventional navies, big guns are probably the way to.

On the other hand, I think the armies and navies of today are increasingly preparing themselves to deal with guerrilla type resistances. Currently, the vessels that navies have to be prepared to counter are small, fast and agile boats. By the time you aim and fire one of these electromagnetic missiles, the boat that is 20 miles away presents such a small target and is quick enough that it will have moved out of the trajectory of the missile. And it would seem to me that a missile such as we a talking about has a limited range of maneuvrability. I still think that an actual self propelled guided missile is far more accurate and has a much higher degree of maneuvrability, and would ultimately be more successful against the small vessels which i see modern warships engaging.

Of course, if war ever comes against China, then yes, we could very well see conventional navies duking it out with each other. In which case big guns, and this tech in particular, will have a place.

Perhaps but its all in scale.
Just because this thing is huge now doesn't mean it will be forever...look at how big Nuclear warheads started off at, and then look at the davey crocket Recoiless. We can scale it down to say, something you would mount in a litoral class vessel to duke it out with other smaller faster boats.
It would still have a better kill chance than a cruise missile.

-ST

 

[ipaine]

Power sources will get smaller and so will the projectiles. It really is all in the speed you can launch something.

And as for shooting at targets at long distances, these travel at such a high rate of speed that you just can't intercept them let alone move a target. If these are moving at about 5400mph then we are looking at it taking about 17 seconds to impact a target at 25 miles. Hell it would travel 90 miles in a minute (if it could keep that speed up for that time).

Frankly though, reducing the projectile size and therefore reducing the weapon size and required energy is where it is at.

 

[Guest]

You defintely bring up valid points....but ,

"Missiles" only superceeded 'artillery' because of accuracy ,and easy construction.......gps guided shells need to withstand 100x the g's of a missile , hence missiles are cheaper.

Here's the thing tho :

Railguns fire bits of metal.....At velocities that make 25 sticks of TNT seem insignificant.

We need to work on sub-millisecond coursecontrol...........And high-amp rails !!!!!!

:thumb:

Bit rusty on this but correct me if I am wrong (probably) but dont they fire depleted uranium slugs?

Thought the whole idea of a railgun was mass/kinetic energy?

very cool though getting smaller and smaller every time I see a video released.

 

[Bapadaboopy]

Soon we will have these mounted on the bottom of our spaceships.. Oh wait..

 

[krazyups]

Bit rusty on this but correct me if I am wrong (probably) but dont they fire depleted uranium slugs?

Thought the whole idea of a railgun was mass/kinetic energy?

very cool though getting smaller and smaller every time I see a video released.

I thought that they would be tungsten to be able to withstand the heat from firing, but it could very well be some sort of coated depleted uranium.