real life rail gun

[Deuce11]

http://www.reuters.com/video/2012/02/28/us-navy-kicks-off-rail-gun-tests-with-a?videoId=230957596&videoChannel=2602

[LordMcSpank]

Yep, the Navy has been working on these for years. Pretty cool stuff.

[Nightspawn]

Very cool.

[ZenPaladin]

We can make rail guns sure. But can we make sure they are only fired in the service of the greater good? That's a lot tougher.

[heretic marine]

that looks awesome.

[DarkLink]

It's also a huge step forward for naval firepower. A gun that can hit a target over the horizon using nothing more than a chunk of metal is a massive improvement over multi-million dollar missiles crammed with high explosives and fragile electronics.

[Roma89q]

Very cool indeed, simple yet devastating. Maybe they'll save us money which they can redistribute into education! Or more rail guns!

[Criger]

Pretty sweet. I wonder if these navy researchers play 40k...

[Wildcard]

Another major branch of investigation from the navy has been laser based weaponry. The current situation is that there has been developed a laser that can track down enemy airborne units (both planes and missiles). This method however can mostly be used as a defensive measure, and against smaller targets:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqLkpcHavZE

However, the navy has made remarkable progress in the high power laser weaponry, that could be used to replace some of the battleship / cruiser - class ships ship-to-ship and ship-to-air weaponry. (apparently not all the projectile based weaponry, since laser requires line of sight to its target and there can be situations where such a LoS cannot be drawn.):

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/02/18/navy-breaks-world-record-futuristic-laser-getting-real/

Some juicy bits from the article (that is over a year old, so there must have been improvements in that sector over the year that has passed:


And that new record moved them one step closer to proving the "holy grail" of laser guns is real.



FoxNews.com saw scientists blast unprecedented levels of power into a prototype accelerator, producing a supercharged electron beam that can burn through 20 feet of steel per second.


Thats 6.1 meters per second :eek:


“It’s huge in regards to upgrading the laser power beam quality,” he said. According to ONR officials, that laser beam will eventually perform at a staggering “megawatt class,” a measure of the laser's strength.



While Rear Admiral Nevin P. Carr Jr., Chief of Naval Research acknowledges that this is not “something that we are going to wave a wand at and it’s going to appear” -- in fact, the Navy doesn't expect to hit the ultimate megawatt goal until the 2020s -- there have been several incremental victories that have pushed this project ahead of schedule that have scientists and program managers excited.


There, quite frankly I am both enthralled and scared from the news.. Seems it wont be (relatively) long before we get to see Lances on our ocean faring ships :)

[DarkLink]

Pretty sweet. I wonder if these navy researchers play 40k...

40k didn't exactly invent railguns (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railgun). They've been standard fair of science fiction for nearly a century.

[Danno]

There has also been interest/talk/etc.. in using railguns to launch supplies into space too.

[Wildcard]

Pretty sweet. I wonder if these navy researchers play 40k...

If they do, all i can say is "******* Tau fanboys"..

Where's my bolter?
Where's my chainsword?
Wheres my lasgun?


using railguns to launch supplies into space


No matter what food they would pack in those containers, the astronauts better like pancakes, cos thats all they gonna be receiving with the G-forces required to shoot something into the high orbit :)

Edit: Not ofc the G-force required, but the force and velocity where the G-forces are coming, silly me :)

[DarkLink]

Actually, those are called mass drivers. They're essentially the same mechanism as a rail gun, but instead of sending a "small" hunk of metal at extremely high velocities they propel a very large mass like a space shuttle at moderately high velocities.

They aren't being seriously considered to launch things in orbit from Earth, for the reasons Wildcard mentioned. However, if we were to build a moon base mass drivers would be one of the easiest and most efficient ways to send stuff up into the moon's orbit.



As for bo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOoUVeyaY_8)lt (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOoUVeyaY_8)er (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-7L0Frj6vQ)s, chainswords and lasguns, well, at least the first one is somewhat feasible. There's no actual conceivable reason to use a chainsaw as a military weapon, and lasers require massive, massive batteries and other equipment to use as an actual weapon.

[1lainie1]

i remember seeing this a while ago. wish i could see what would happen to a car after geting hit by that.

[Warped-Bitz]

Id like to see the damage one of these beasts could do....

[DarkLink]

You actually can see it. Some of those videos show the projectile punching through a steel plate like it was paper. In fact, some of them show the performance of the projectile by measuring how many kilometers the projectile could still travel even after punching through a steel plate.

[candlehand]

Does anyone know why the projectile is shaped so strangely? It surprises me that it's not more streamlined/spinning from a rifled barrel. Maybe it's something they'll add later.

On the other hand, getting hit by a supersonic chunk of blunt metal seems very grimdark future!

[Franek_Dolas]

Now that we have a successful test, we should be seeing these babies mounted on ships in the next few years. :D

[Kataklysm]

Pretty sweet. I wonder if these navy researchers play 40k...

I lol'd so hard at the thought of this.

[Colonel Falkenberg]

I wonder how long it takes for them to mount a railgun in a satilite? A kinetic energy weapon platform in orbit would definately give you the high ground. Not sure if the non nukes in space treaty covers that.

[TheWildRider]

Actually, we've had Bolters since the 70's. Check out the Gyrojet project.

[Wildcard]

I wonder how long it takes for them to mount a railgun in a satilite? A kinetic energy weapon platform in orbit would definately give you the high ground. Not sure if the non nukes in space treaty covers that.

Imo russia has stated that if any nation would ever take any weapon into the orbit, they would consider it as an act of war and would retaliate with a full scale nuclear bombardment..

That statement has so far effectively worked in keeping weapons out of space :)

[Osiris]

Does anyone know why the projectile is shaped so strangely?

The shape of the projectile in that video is designed for what the magnetic field in the gun "expects to see". In other words, it's the shape that produces the most forward force when interacting with that particular magnetic field. Obviously not good for killing things, but you can get an estimate of the staggering firepower by how that odd projectile still makes steel look like wet tissue paper.

I think it's safe to say that I don't want to see what would happen if a ship got tagged with one of these big guns. No way you're staying afloat after that.

[gendoikari87]

The shape of the projectile in that video is designed for what the magnetic field in the gun "expects to see". In other words, it's the shape that produces the most forward force when interacting with that particular magnetic field. Obviously not good for killing things, but you can get an estimate of the staggering firepower by how that odd projectile still makes steel look like wet tissue paper.

I think it's safe to say that I don't want to see what would happen if a ship got tagged with one of these big guns. No way you're staying afloat after that.

I think he means the bluntness to it, which comes from them trying to reduce collateral damage, they want it to be as unaerodynamic as possible to decrease the range and thus the chance it will hit someones house.



Actually, we've had Bolters since the 70's. Check out the Gyrojet project.
Word, they sucked then, and they suck now. There are reasons we kept standard projectile weapons. of course if you want something similar in firepower check out the XM25

[Renegade]

Did anyone else see the big red letters on the barrel? BAe, British Aerospace!

American money and British brains is what that thing is, and will probably be seeing it used by both navies.

[gendoikari87]

Did anyone else see the big red letters on the barrel? BAe, British Aerospace!

American money and British brains is what that thing is, and will probably be seeing it used by both navies.

BIG surprise.... not.

[DarkLink]

You mean that you didn't know that arms companies come from all over the world? America, Germany, Italy, Finland, South Africa, and yes, even Britain.

[chewielight]

That's awesome.

[betacentauri]

as much as a real life railgun would be cool, think of the recoil and the heat generated :O

[Dameon01]

cant wait for this to get all the kinks worked out then mounted on our destroyers

[pappsy]

sweet

[DarkLink]

as much as a real life railgun would be cool, think of the recoil and the heat generated :O

Compared to this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5ATYPrZnSQ&feature=related)?

[Zuul]

Imo russia has stated that if any nation would ever take any weapon into the orbit, they would consider it as an act of war and would retaliate with a full scale nuclear bombardment..

That statement has so far effectively worked in keeping weapons out of space :)

Back in 2003 the Chinese sent their first cosmonaut into space with a knife and handgun. The Soviets/Russians themselves carried the TP-82 on many of their trips up from 1986-2006. Just sayin' I don't think they mean just any weapon.

[Calgar33]

I just bruised my jaw from it hitting the floor.

[Urza8188]

Ahh now all we have to do is invent walking battlesuits that can carry them......or perhaps reduce them to the size of a large rifle and get crackin on personalized stealth field generators......A man can dream.

[Eupackardia]

When for Mobile Suits and beam swords for: http://notioncode.com/goraku/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/oriser-gundam-00.jpg!

[betacentauri]

nevermind then o.o"