Innehållsförteckning
What is a railgun?
Railguns are being researched as weapons with projectiles that do not contain explosives or propellants, but are given extremely high velocities: 2,500 m/s (8,200 ft/s) (approximately Mach 7 at sea level) or more.
What happens if you shoot a railgun?
The raw kinetic power unleashed in firing the railgun is rough on the weapon’s parts. As PM wrote in 2009, the year the railgun was delivered to the Navy, ”A few shots can dislodge the conducting rails—or even damage the barrel of the gun.”
Which country has successfully tested its own railgun?
India has successfully tested their own railgun. Russia, China, Turkey ’s ASELSAN and Yeteknoloji are also developing railguns. Helical railguns are multi-turn railguns that reduce rail and brush current by a factor equal to the number of turns. Two rails are surrounded by a helical barrel and the projectile or re-usable carrier is also helical.
What is the destructive force of a railgun?
The destructive force of a projectile depends on its kinetic energy and mass at the point of impact and because of the potentially high velocity of a railgun-launched projectile, its destructive force may be much greater than conventionally launched projectiles of the same size.
Will the Navy’s new railgun work?
U.S. Navy photo by John F. Williams/DVIDS The U.S. Navy has spent $500 million developing a working railgun. Now that the weapon works, there are no plans to make it an operational weapon system. The service is instead pushing a new hypervelocity projectile it can fire from existing guns.
When will the railgun be ready for combat?
It is expected to be ready between 2020 and 2025. A test of a railgun took place on December 10, 2010, by the U.S. Navy at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division. During the test, the Office of Naval Research set a world record by conducting a 33 MJ shot from the railgun, which was built by BAE Systems.
Are rail guns the answer to our short-range firepower problem?
In theory, rail guns are the perfect solution for short- and long-range firepower. In reality, they present several serious problems: Power supply:Generating the power necessary to accelerate rail gun projectiles is a real challenge.
Is the railgun a victim of the service’s new emphasis on competition?
The railgun appears to be the victim of the service’s new emphasis on great power competition. Although impressive, the railgun has been overshadowed by other weapons, particularly hypersonics.
What are railguns and periscopes used for?
Railguns fire medium velocity shells that deal high amounts of damage to anything they hit. They are typically slow-firing and require high precision to be useful. Like other Turrets, Periscopes are typically used to aim and fire Railguns.
How difficult is it to make a railgun?
Making a railgun is “trivial”, solving the rail erosion problem and making them efficient aren’t. How much of the stored energy is transferred to the kinetic energy of the projectile? Surely rail erosion isn’t going to be a problem for a hobbyist. It’s easy enough to replace them, they’re one of the simpler bits of the design.
What is the history of the railgun launcher?
In 1995, the Center for Electromagnetics at the University of Texas at Austin designed and developed a rapid-fire railgun launcher called the Cannon-Caliber Electromagnetic Gun. The launcher prototype was later tested at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, where it demonstrated a breech efficiency over 50 percent.