New Railgun Tests

[Avenger]

My logic exactly. A large slug would be incapable of reaching such a speed without an extreme amount of energy.

 

[Almighty_Gir]

because, over a distance of 200 miles, it would slow down to its terminal velocity, and judging by the size of the slug, that wouldn't be enough to damage a plated ship.

 

[Zeonix]

because, over a distance of 200 miles, it would slow down to its terminal velocity, and judging by the size of the slug, that wouldn't be enough to damage a plated ship.

I'm going to go ahead and assume the people creating the railgun know what their doing.

 

[Avenger]

Why would you assume something like that? Scientists don't know how to make things work.

 

[Almighty_Gir]

200 miles is just about my countries width at the narrowest point, so while i agree they know what they are doing when they can make it fire a slug. i would disagree in saying the slugs could do any degree of damage over that distance, that's what missiles are for.

and, i'd like to point out that as with most projectiles, they've only given the upper range, and not the EFFECTIVE range. which i imagine would be less than 50 miles.

 

[Zeonix]

200 miles is just about my countries width at the narrowest point, so while i agree they know what they are doing when they can make it fire a slug. i would disagree in saying the slugs could do any degree of damage over that distance, that's what missiles are for.

and, i'd like to point out that as with most projectiles, they've only given the upper range, and not the EFFECTIVE range. which i imagine would be less than 50 miles.

I'm quite sure they've taken all of your worries into consideration. They're pros. They know what they're doing, they're getting paid to do it and they need it to be an efficient killing machine so it will be.

 

[Almighty_Gir]

hey, i get paid to give good customer service, but i still told a customer to get the **** away from me when his breath smelled like ass.

 

[Zeonix]

I can see how these two completely different situations are comparable.

...

 

[Almighty_Gir]

basically, what people are paid to do, and what they are actually capable of, are two very different things.

i'm not denying that i want a railgun. but until i get a handheld one that can go through 20 people in a row without a second thought, and we start having actual unreal tournaments... i'm gonna ignore this.

 

[Zeonix]

If their railgun fails to impress our military, the people behind it are going to stop getting funding, and their competitors will get a shot. Simple as that, really.

As for you ignoring the railgun, please do.

 

[hellrider]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,327205,00.html

There's video footage of it being fired, so have fun with that.

railcannon is the revolutionary technology that capable and reliable than plasma and laser. capable to panatrate the 1300mm steal armor. I dont think there are any traditional combat weapon can surpass that.

 

[J-Dude]

I think the main advantage here with the railgun will be first, it's effective range, and second, it's sheer power.

Until other nations start incorporating this sort of weaponry, a ship with railguns on it taking on another ship without is going to be a slam dunk victory for the railgun armed ship. Forgive me if my words here come from playing EVE Online (which actually features railguns as a weapon) which is, I suppose, naval warfare in 3 dimensions of movement.

Now, considering the effective range, anything without railguns is going to have to risk getting close enough to the railgun ship to use it's own shorter range weaponry. During that time, the railgun ship will have ample opportunity to cause tremendous damage to the oncoming ship before it can fire a single shot, and the closer the ship gets (depending on the turning speed of the railgun turrets) the more devestating the damage to the other ship when a hit is made, and the easier it will be for the railgun ship to hit the target.

In short, even if it can't bombard cities 200 miles away with any sort of precision, just the range advantage over current explosive gunpowder projectile weaponry will be well worth having.

 

[Zeonix]

Once they miniaturize it and make it more efficient, we'll send a few up into space.

 

[Hibiki]

200 miles is just about my countries width at the narrowest point, so while i agree they know what they are doing when they can make it fire a slug. i would disagree in saying the slugs could do any degree of damage over that distance, that's what missiles are for.

No a solid metal slug can deal unimaginable levels of destruction once it begins moving fast enough.

The entire point behind a railgun is that you get a small projectile moving so fast that it doesn't matter how much armor the target has it will still punch through and destroy it.

This thing isn't falling at a target near it's terminal velocity. It's being propelled at Mach 5 and when a small object gets going that fast it tends to slice through the air so fast it ignores wind resistance and really isn't in the air long enough to be effected by gravity strongly enough to throw it off.

It helps to actually know the physics behind something like this before you go saying it could never work.

 

[Killface]

Wouldn't the curvature of the earth effect the projectile when its traveling that far?

 

[J-Dude]

Wouldn't the curvature of the earth effect the projectile when its traveling that far?

Like mentioned, 200 miles is as far as it's been known to travel, but it's likely wildly inaccurate at that range. Think of a Sniper Rifle. If you fire it at an angle into the air, that bullet could keep going for miles. But would you hit anything you targeted? Not unless you combined chaos theory, aerodynamics and everything down to the rotation of the planet on a level even Einstein wouldn't have bothered to calculate. But the optimum range? A few hundred yards. Now apply that principle here.

 

[SS4 Gogeta]

Pretty much the same story, just a different source

http://www.livescience.com/technology/080201-electromagnetic-record.html

 

[Avenger]

The big gun uses electromagnetic energy instead of explosive chemical propellants to fire a projectile farther and faster. The railgun, as it is called, will ultimately fire a projectile more than 230 miles (370 kilometers) with a muzzle velocity seven times the speed of sound (Mach 7) and a velocity of Mach 5 at impact.

It doesn't move at Mach 5, it starts moving at Mach 7. Mach 5 is when it impacts at around 230 miles. This thing is likely going to the the single most powerful anti-air weapon ever conceived (the shockwave alone would send any fighterplane to the ground).

Oh, and why the hell would you need a hand-held railgun?!?! NO ONE needs a weapon that devastating. If you fired a gun like that at a burglar, you'd likely destroy a wall, and kill 90 people in the process.

 

[Zeonix]

It doesn't move at Mach 5, it starts moving at Mach 7. Mach 5 is when it impacts at around 230 miles. This thing is likely going to the the single most powerful anti-air weapon ever conceived (the shockwave alone would send any fighterplane to the ground).

Oh, and why the hell would you need a hand-held railgun?!?! NO ONE needs a weapon that devastating. If you fired a gun like that at a burglar, you'd likely destroy a wall, and kill 90 people in the process.

Eh...I think fighters will be moving a bit to fast to knock down with a railgun, although you could probably nail a hovering helicopter. They intend to you use it for naval warfare, and I guess to take on ground targets.

 

[Adaptus]

Indeed, I could even see this being used for anti-ICBM, anti-satellite and many air-to-ground applications, including both offensive and defensive measures.