World’s Most Powerful Electromagnetic Railgun Tested by the U.S. Navy

[kach22i]

World’s Most Powerful Electromagnetic Railgun Tested by the U.S. Navy
http://www.defense-update.com/newscast/0208/news/news_030208_railgun.htm

At full capability, a future rail gun will be able to fire a projectile more than 200 nautical miles (ten times farther than current Mk 45 five inch guns) at a muzzle velocity of mach seven and impacting its target at mach five. These high velocity projectiles will be able to destroy targets by kinetic energy, rather than with conventional explosives.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Where can I order one?

[cgarr]

Like launching a meteor!!

[ls23h]

http://www.livescience.com/php/video/player.php?video_id=080201-railgun

[cgarr]

"uses electromagnetic energy instead of explosive chemical propellants to fire a projectile"

So whats all the fire from??

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by cgarr

"uses electromagnetic energy instead of explosive chemical propellants to fire a projectile"

So whats all the fire from??

I think that's "Plasma" because it's going so fast, it ignites the air.

See meteors and the Space Shuttle re-entry.

[flashgordon13]

That is some wild stuff! My son built a small rail gun for a high school electronics project that would shoot a nail across a room and into a 2X4, but this thing is very impressive. I can't imagine the power requirements to fire such a large device. It took 20 amps @ 110v just to shoot a nail 15 feet and into a piece of wood.

[kstar]

Note the atmospheric lensing at the front of the projectile!



This test was around 10 "megajoules" IIRC, and this was only about 1/3 of potential.

Cool.

Best,

Kurt