20 replies to this topic

[Anvil Dragon]

Seems the US Navy is showing off a new toy:
http://news.yahoo.co...-201003095.html

Even looks about the right size.


(That should fix it)

Edited by Anvil Dragon, 29 February 2012 - 02:06 PM.

[Listless Nomad]

Pretty cool article - and video

Edited by Listless Nomad, 29 February 2012 - 03:09 PM.

[FACEman Peck]

That's the Navy for you, making the hot toys for the clean ships, not making much for the dirty ground warfare.

[Karyudo ds]

Woah.. I've seen these tests back in 2008, they've managed to shrink the weapon down a lot though.

FACEman Peck, on 29 February 2012 - 03:08 PM, said:

...not making much for the dirty ground warfare.

What ground warfare? They want to be able to shoot these things from 200 miles away, if they get their way we might just take the lazy route and shoot at EVERYTHING from our recliners!

[Catamount]

~36-56MJ (40lbs/18kg@7200-9000kph) is hardly the most powerful navel weapon ever (it's about 1/10th of an Iowa class's 16' gun), but it's a very impressive weapon given the size. It's getting about 10% of the power of said battleship gun from a round about 1% the size, which really cuts down on the weapon too, not to mention you'll have more ammunition, and faster reloading.

Of course, it means the Navy is going to need a lot of electrical power (firing one of those even every few seconds would take a dozen or more megawatts). Looks like the Navy's got a better reason than ever to make polywell fusion reactors work for them.

[nubnub]

But does it come with x-ray vision like in Eraser?

[Shadou]

Yes the gauss rifle is coming.

[Scandrick5546]

lol railgun that be pretty cool....

[Felicitatem Parco]

How 'bout a bump for merge with http://mwomercs.com/.../3745-rail-gun/

Oh, and Gauss Rifle does not equal Railgun, as discussed thoroughly in the aforementioned thread...

Edited by Prosperity Park, 29 February 2012 - 05:50 PM.

[Plutarch]

Erm ... i am the only one who noticed the dicrepancy?

The Article says: Newly released video shows the prototype railgun using an electric-powered launcher rather than gunpowder to fire a huge hypersonic bullet in a cloud of flame and smoke.

and what produces that "Railgun" ? Right ... a big fireball and lot of smoke.

nice fake

[Hanged Man]

Plutarch, on 01 March 2012 - 05:27 AM, said:

and what produces that "Railgun" ? Right ... a big fireball and lot of smoke.

nice fake

Did you even watch the video? The absurd velocities that the projectile reaches cause friction so great (think of spacecraft reentering earth's atmosphere) that the air superheats and combusts in its wake. It's not hard to figure out.

[Plutarch]

Hanged Man, on 01 March 2012 - 05:41 AM, said:

Did you even watch the video? The absurd velocities that the projectile reaches cause friction so great (think of spacecraft reentering earth's atmosphere) that the air superheats and combusts in its wake. It's not hard to figure out.

Your right, that can be the answer. But for me it looks like RPG fire. Go search for them, they look like that one. Fire, smoke and then a quite fast projectile.

[Jacob]

Plutarch, on 01 March 2012 - 08:36 AM, said:

Your right, that can be the answer. But for me it looks like RPG fire. Go search for them, they look like that one. Fire, smoke and then a quite fast projectile.

In the article they state that they are firing rounds that are not aerodynamic so they slow down really fast, thanks to this friction air is heated so much that it probably just turns to plasma.

Edited by Jacob, 01 March 2012 - 01:34 PM.

[Felicitatem Parco]

Plutarch, on 01 March 2012 - 05:27 AM, said:

Erm ... i am the only one who noticed the dicrepancy?

The Article says: Newly released video shows the prototype railgun using an electric-powered launcher rather than gunpowder to fire a huge hypersonic bullet in a cloud of flame and smoke.

and what produces that "Railgun" ? Right ... a big fireball and lot of smoke.

nice fake

Plutarch, on 01 March 2012 - 08:36 AM, said:

Your right, that can be the answer. But for me it looks like RPG fire. Go search for them, they look like that one. Fire, smoke and then a quite fast projectile.

Search Youtube for railgun...

Oh... and merge this topic with the old railgun topic here?

Edited by Prosperity Park, 01 March 2012 - 04:09 PM.

[Plutarch]

Yeah ... i do ... this is one of my faforite

Friction heh? Someone said it its like the Space Shuttle as it enters the atmosphere and the friction does that firetail. If thats so, why the front of that projectile isnt on fire? If friction causes that friretail the whole projectile would be covered by that fire, like the Space Shuttle.

[LordDeathStrike]

the reason you have to get up close and dirty in mechwarrior is due to radioactive particle jamming, the most powerfull long range detection systems in the universe are only good out to just over 1 kilometer, and ecm can still trick them till 300m in battletech, hence you have to get up close and dirty with mechs, you can bomb from orbit but you wont know what youre hitting without eyes on the ground.

[Stripes]

RailGun, depending on exact construction, have a tendeny to turn slug in to plasma on acceleration phase - its a part of the same process, which gets this little piece of iron to supersonic speed. Use wiki for God sake!

[Plutarch]

LordDeathStrike, on 02 March 2012 - 01:24 AM, said:

the reason you have to get up close and dirty in mechwarrior is due to radioactive particle jamming, the most powerfull long range detection systems in the universe are only good out to just over 1 kilometer, and ecm can still trick them till 300m in battletech, hence you have to get up close and dirty with mechs, you can bomb from orbit but you wont know what youre hitting without eyes on the ground.

total off Topic

Stripes, on 02 March 2012 - 01:49 AM, said:

RailGun, depending on exact construction, have a tendeny to turn slug in to plasma on acceleration phase - its a part of the same process, which gets this little piece of iron to supersonic speed. Use wiki for God sake!

You are a true beliver, heh?

EVERITHING that some dudes post on a Wiki MUST be true, Halleuja !!!!

-end off trolling-

ps: still dont belive it

[Stripes]

Wiki used by many people as point of reference... a lot often )

The point is - with our current tech, RailGun much easier and cheaper to create then true Gauss gun. I always wondered why RailGun basicly dont exist in BattleTech universe...

[Gunmage]

Stripes, on 02 March 2012 - 03:32 AM, said:

The point is - with our current tech, RailGun much easier and cheaper to create then true Gauss gun.

Wrong. You can make a Gauss gun on your table - Popular Mechanics posted blueprints 2 or 3 years ago. But what you'll get will be a device propelling paper clips at velocities which won't make your cat flinch. The point is, with the same electrical current the Gauss force will be less than Lorentz force, which is the propelling element in a railgun.

Also, C.O. physics corner:
If that was a rocket:
1) the fuel would detonate on impact (even solid)
2) rockets accelerate until fuel runs out, and the projectile in the video seems to lose speed instead.

Edited by Gunmage, 02 March 2012 - 04:09 AM.