US Naval Railgun inaugural range test fire 17NOV16 - General

Damn I was really hoping for some blue laser beams or something

[QUOTE=Thunderbolt;52009681]I wonder how quickly will the barrel wear out, all that friction and arcing can't be good for the rails[/QUOTE] Extremely fast. But in modern warfare, a gun like that doesn't need to fire a 100 rounds in the course of a battle. With the amount of heat it produces, you would get a lot of barrel warping too. [editline]25th March 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=HumanAbyss;52012025]IIRC the shells they fire are shaped like that to help reduce their contact with the rails to minimize the wear and tear. They're basically just solid metal. They'll do more damage than an explosive round just due to kinetics.[/QUOTE] Pretty much this. Adding a warhead to it would inhibit it more than it would help.

Haven't followed this project, what does it improve?

[QUOTE=The bird Man;52012475]Haven't followed this project, what does it improve?[/QUOTE] It has its own exclusive firing range now.

This thing is so fast that they aimed level with the ground and shot a steel plate with it. After it went through the plate it kept going for 7km before it hit the ground. Remember, if you drop a bullet from shoulder height, it'll fall and hit the ground at the same time as a bullet you shoot from the same height. So to travel 7km before hitting the ground is in-fucking-sane. Basically in under 1.5 seconds

My sister's fiance who was station near the railgun told me that thing is loud as fuck. This video doesn't even do justice to it. The biggest thing with the railgun is that progress is slow on the tech and laser technology is moving way faster. To the point that the use of a railgun on a ship is becoming less and less likely in the near future.

[QUOTE=HumanAbyss;52012025]IIRC the shells they fire are shaped like that to help reduce their contact with the rails to minimize the wear and tear. They're basically just solid metal. They'll do more damage than an explosive round just due to kinetics.[/QUOTE] While we're talking about the sheer power of kinetic energy, I'd like to remind you all of the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_bombardment]Rods from God, also known as Project Thor.[/url]

[QUOTE=Kill001;52008274]can someone explain the funky shape of railgun projectiles to me it always looks like it's firing a trophy instead of a traditionally aerodynamic projectile[/QUOTE] You can see a more proper looking dart sabot round in their earlier video. [hd]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU_253_TkSM[/hd]

[QUOTE=Rich209;52012827]My sister's fiance who was station near the railgun told me that thing is loud as fuck. This video doesn't even do justice to it. The biggest thing with the railgun is that progress is slow on the tech and laser technology is moving way faster. To the point that the use of a railgun on a ship is becoming less and less likely in the near future.[/QUOTE] Actually it's matured pretty well so far, the only major issue with the system is the massive power requirement, our current Burkes can only push 2.5 MW per Generator out of 3 and only 2 are usually ran at a time. The Zumwalt is built with 2 Rolls Royce gas turbines that can shit out 35 MW per generator more than enough for the 25 MW requirement. The issue with our current laser systems is they don't perform well in less than ideal weather or over long distances coupled with a larger power requirement. LaWS is designed for lower end threats anyway. I have a few acquaintances at NAVSEASYSCOM who claim the RUMOR is that it will be built on the Lyndon B. Johnson, the third and final Zumwalt class but we'll have to wait and see as they just started it's construction.

[QUOTE=Ta16;52013078]Actually it's matured pretty well so far, the only major issue with the system is the massive power requirement, our current Burkes can only push 2.5 MW per Generator out of 3 and only 2 are usually ran at a time. The Zumwalt is built with 2 Rolls Royce gas turbines that can shit out 35 MW per generator more than enough for the 25 MW requirement. The issue with our current laser systems is they don't perform well in less than ideal weather or over long distances coupled with a larger power requirement. LaWS is designed for lower end threats anyway. I have a few acquaintances at NAVSEASYSCOM who claim the RUMOR is that it will be built on the Lyndon B. Johnson, the third and final Zumwalt class but we'll have to wait and see as they just started it's construction.[/QUOTE] You're mostly right, but I wasn't referring to LaWS. I was talking more about our missiles containing lasers on the tips of them. You can build a bunch of missiles that can take out land, navel, and air targets fairly cheaply compared to some of the more experimental projects they're researching. Cost and practicability is the biggest thing standing in the way of the railgun.

[QUOTE=Ta16;52013078]Actually it's matured pretty well so far, the only major issue with the system is the massive power requirement, our current Burkes can only push 2.5 MW per Generator out of 3 and only 2 are usually ran at a time. The Zumwalt is built with 2 Rolls Royce gas turbines that can shit out 35 MW per generator more than enough for the 25 MW requirement. The issue with our current laser systems is they don't perform well in less than ideal weather or over long distances coupled with a larger power requirement. LaWS is designed for lower end threats anyway. I have a few acquaintances at NAVSEASYSCOM who claim the RUMOR is that it will be built on the Lyndon B. Johnson, the third and final Zumwalt class but we'll have to wait and see as they just started it's construction.[/QUOTE] It's being built to be installed on the last zumwalt that is still being built which was fitted with additional generators in order to be able to power the thing. The rest of the zumwalt-class has been cancelled due to overrunning their budget, so out of the originally planned 32 ships, 29 have been cancelled. If the railgun works at sea they may develop a new ship around it, but it won't bring back the zumwalt-class.

[QUOTE=Rich209;52012827]My sister's fiance who was station near the railgun told me that thing is loud as fuck. This video doesn't even do justice to it. The biggest thing with the railgun is that progress is slow on the tech and laser technology is moving way faster. To the point that the use of a railgun on a ship is becoming less and less likely in the near future.[/QUOTE] I seriously have to doubt that. The power output needed for laser weapons right now is just as much as railguns, and lasers also come with a number of other downsides such as not currently being powerful enough to do anything other than sorta kinda set PT boats and basic drones on fire. In the future I really see a combination of a bunch of different weapons systems, with lasers for small targets, conventional weapons and missiles for medium sized targets and railguns being used for other ships and bombardment. There's no reason to limit ourselves to just a few systems.

[QUOTE=ViralHatred;52021278]It's being built to be installed on the last zumwalt that is still being built which was fitted with additional generators in order to be able to power the thing. The rest of the zumwalt-class has been cancelled due to overrunning their budget, so out of the originally planned 32 ships, 29 have been cancelled. If the railgun works at sea they may develop a new ship around it, but it won't bring back the zumwalt-class.[/QUOTE] Okay... That's what I just said? You just reiterated my post.

[QUOTE=Orkel;52013077]You can see a more proper looking dart sabot round in their earlier video. [hd]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU_253_TkSM[/hd][/QUOTE] You can see it slicing through the air, that's pretty cool. The explosion also has that ripple effect on the air.

[QUOTE=TornadoAP;52021851]I seriously have to doubt that. The power output needed for laser weapons right now is just as much as railguns, and lasers also come with a number of other downsides such as not currently being powerful enough to do anything other than sorta kinda set PT boats and basic drones on fire. In the future I really see a combination of a bunch of different weapons systems, with lasers for small targets, conventional weapons and missiles for medium sized targets and railguns being used for other ships and bombardment. There's no reason to limit ourselves to just a few systems.[/QUOTE] Yeah, Rich209 is overestimating the abilities of laser systems imo. Although, this is a proper [I]rail[/I]gun, so the rails will wear down and have to be replaced from time to time (not unlike barrels on conventional weapons, tbh). A coilgun would avoid this issues, but there are other downsides to coilguns too and I'm sure the Navy (or BAE, rather) did their homework on the best electromagnetic system to use for launching projectiles. [editline]30th March 2017[/editline] also lasers require more sustained power output to fire, but a railgun could be charged with capacitors and then fired once with the charge stored in the capacitors. I think that's how one of the initial test videos was setup? Anyways, that should lower power demand on the vessel considerably by allowing for the allocation of power to/from the charging setup I imagine.

[QUOTE=paindoc;52033253]Yeah, Rich209 is overestimating the abilities of laser systems imo. Although, this is a proper [I]rail[/I]gun, so the rails will wear down and have to be replaced from time to time (not unlike barrels on conventional weapons, tbh). A coilgun would avoid this issues, but there are other downsides to coilguns too and I'm sure the Navy (or BAE, rather) did their homework on the best electromagnetic system to use for launching projectiles. [editline]30th March 2017[/editline] also lasers require more sustained power output to fire, but a railgun could be charged with capacitors and then fired once with the charge stored in the capacitors. I think that's how one of the initial test videos was setup? Anyways, that should lower power demand on the vessel considerably by allowing for the allocation of power to/from the charging setup I imagine.[/QUOTE] Does this mean they can actually say "Captain, our weapons are charging?" now?