Saturday, July 12, 2014

U.S. Navy Unveils Two Prototype Railguns



Navy Unveils Prototype Railguns -- San Diego 6

SAN DIEGO – Navy officials unveiled two prototype weapons Tuesday that have been cloaked in secrecy for years, and are capable of firing seven times the speed of sound.

They are electromagnetic railguns, developed by the Office of Naval Research.

A railgun can fire a projectile up to 5,600 miles per hour – about six times faster than a bullet from a handgun – at a range of up to 110 miles, Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder said.

It delivers up to 32 megajoules of energy.

“Literally it is like taking a huge freight train and going through the wall that's a few feet to my left at over 100 miles an hour. Right through that wall,” said Klunder, the Chief of Naval Research.

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More News On The U.S. Navy Unveiling Two Prototype Railguns

US Navy unveils electromagnetic railgun prototypes -- RT
US Navy demonstrates new railgun -- KSN/CNN
Navy shows off its new firepower -- CBS8
Navy unveils electromagnetic railgun that can shoot projectiles 5,000 mph -- WPTV
U.S. Navy unveils electromagnetic railgun -- KHON2
Navy unveils electromagnetic railgun -- FOX News
US Navy deploys prototype EM railguns on USS Millinocket JHSV -- Naval-Technology

1 comment:

Orion said...

Okay, I'm floored. Last I knew they still had huge issues with the barrels wearing out after a very few shots.

Operational in 2018? That's about the same time as the laser weapons will be coming online.

Now, how are they going to go about retrofitting the other ships in the Navy to generate and distribute the power needed to run all these weapons?

That'll surely get rid of the need for the old 5" guns. I wonder if they could put a GPS kit into that round as well?

Orion