Navy railgun

[Harte]

Re: Navy's Magnetic Railgun

God bless the USA, now we finally can destroy the Narn! Mwuhahahahahahahahahahahaha ... . .. . Yeah.. Mach 7 freakin' insane.. 2018 launch time huh? Who'll bet me they'll have that working in the next two years?

Probably already have it working now.

Why would they not develop it first before announcing it's capabilities?

And damn it, it's about time we use some of our more non conventional weapons. It would be fun... think about it. Ah... memories.

Which leads me to wonder exactly why they would want such a thing in the first place?

I mean, the speed of the projectile has to be dependant on it's mass. What difference would it make if you land a shell the size of a Volkswagen a half minute earlier than you would have?

The real use for railgun tech comes in transportation of supplies, equipment and such in space, not as some weapons capability.

Harte

 

[jurgen36]

Re: Navy railgun

Actually the nasty Germans during WW2 were experimenting with rail guns at the French coast but then gave it away as impractical due to the large required electricity for the electromagnets. I do agree it could be used in space if you have nuclear power plants to charge your batteries. A direct connection to a power plant would be highly impractical due to the nature of the load in short pulses. It might be possible to supply the pulse power required by large rotating flywheels but due to the large weight necessary it probably will not be used.
Regards

 

[Whitelight]

Re: Navy railgun

I used to be really into researching spontaneous human combustion.

I saw this one picture of this woman (who's if I remember correctly her husband was a fireman) and all that was left was her high heels and her ankles.

Or was it a fireman who spontaneouslly combust himself... I just remember a fireman being involved and it made me laugh.