An artist rendering illustrates the Office of Naval Research-funded electromagnetic railgun installed aboard the joint high-speed vessel USNS Millinocket, the vessel initially expected to be used for sea trials. US Navy
Business Insider: The US Navy is talking about finally taking its railgun out to sea for testing aboard a warship
* The US Navy is talking about finally testing its railgun aboard a warship, which would be a milestone achievement for the struggling program.
* The Navy's railgun, the product of more than a decade of research costing more than $500 million, was expected to be tested in 2016, but the test was delayed.
* The US is not the only country chasing this technology. China has already managed to arm a warship — the Type 072III Yuting-class tank-landing ship "Haiyang Shan" — with a railgun.
The US Navy is planning to finally test the electromagnetic railgun it has spent years and hundreds of millions of dollars developing aboard a warship, according to new documents detailing the service's testing and training plans.
Unlike conventional guns, a railgun uses electromagnetic energy rather than explosive charges to fire rounds farther and at six or seven times the speed of sound.
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WNU Editor: I guess this Chinese test pushed the US Navy to do their own .... U.S. Intelligence Report: China Tested Its Naval Electromagnetic Railgun Early This Month (January 30, 2019).
Research is tough, start the implementation phase too fast and you lose the advantage of the pure research. Also, I think lasers are the next wave, these rail guns don't make much sense to me in a high tech missile world.
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ReplyDeleteHyper Velocity Projectile have a serious place in Naval armaments. Lasers have there problems, and while useful, aren’t much good against a big, hard (like another ship or shoreside bunker) and can only be used line of sight. A solid or explosive projectile has over the horizon capability and a hard kill profile. Explosives make near misses effective. With laser only direct ‘Light’ does the job. At range holding the laser still from a moving ship onto a moving target long enough to deliver sufficient power is very hard.
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