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

[Squeetard]

It travelled 7km down range after punching through a 1.8" steel plate.

Geebus.

 

[Arinoth]

Yep, rail guns are a hell of a weapon which when perfected can yield nearly perfect accuracy and a lot more penetration power.

A little off topic humour:

 

[BrainEater]

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?

I have not found any reference of what the slugs are made of , but I'm almost positive the are NOT depleted uranium.Not test rounds .(remember , DU is *still* radioactive and toxic).....it's possible DU *might* be used in combat rounds but I doubt it.

High density (read U) rounds are only important at lower velocities.In the equation for kinetic energy , it's velocity squared , once you reach a certain velocity the mass really doesnt matter as much , lower density materials can be used.

I assure you , if yah got hit by a rubber ball going at mach 8 the result will be pretty much the same as an alumium slug.

:haha:

 

[PerryC]

I assure you , if yah got hit by a rubber ball going at mach 8 the result will be pretty much the same as an alumium slug.

:haha:

With the heat generated by those speeds I doubt either of them will retain their initial shapes. Either way it will still ruin your day.



edit-- Holy crap 600 posts....I need a life :haha:

 

[Neolithium_Wpg]

I think the bulk of the projectiles to date have been made of Tungsten. Either way if you can fire anything at Mach 10 with the current expected accuracy of a 5m target at 200 nautical miles....screw Tomahawk missiles these are CHEAP!

 

[jcmaz]

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

Gundam anyone?

 

[Soultribunal]

I love this stuff because if there is anything that can steer an asteriod away from us it is a Kenetic kill round.

The more TEch they make, the better.

7KM downrange is awesome.

-ST

 

[Arinoth]

I think the bulk of the projectiles to date have been made of Tungsten. Either way if you can fire anything at Mach 10 with the current expected accuracy of a 5m target at 200 nautical miles....screw Tomahawk missiles these are CHEAP!

I believe you are correct, or that I have not really heard them using any other substance. Isn't tungsten rather rare and hard to mine/acquire though?

 

[Neolithium_Wpg]

I think it is comparatively rare, the bulk of Tungsten comes out of China if memory serves, quite a bit comes from western Russia as well, those two alone account for I think around 80% of worldwide production. it does have a fairly complicated production process though, having to go through several refinements before it can be used for anything, let alone getting it to the purity required for weaponry.

 

[Squeetard]

I imagine they used tungsten for it's high heat properties.