Rail gun
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March 1st, 2012 at 12:08 pm
I dunno, that projectile looked about as stable as the Euro.
March 1st, 2012 at 12:28 pm
It has all the Power that it needs already built and on Standby in a Warehouse. All they need to do is get some of those GM Volt Batteries….
March 1st, 2012 at 12:59 pm
The projectile used in this test is a block of metal in the shape of the sabot that will be used to launch the future projectiles, hence the unstable blocky thing you see in the video.
March 1st, 2012 at 1:06 pm
@Robb: I’m not 100% certain, but it looks like that shot showing the instability may be from a point after it impacted the target, which could be what caused it. Even if not, this is just a prototype. I expect it wouldn’t be too difficult to redesign the gun to give the projectile the right spin to maintain stability. AFAIK, a rail gun should still work if you give the rails a slight twist and sufficient structural support, though I expect that it will cut down significantly on the number of shots before they have to be replaced.
March 1st, 2012 at 1:07 pm
The problem with this gun is power consumption. With our current and immediately foreseeable technology it will take a nuclear powered vessel to get maximum performance out of it..
Oh yeah. About its blocky shape. Blocky angles are more stable at high mach numbers plus it allows for a simpler gun design. With a control system this complex as much simplicity as possible is a very good thing. Look at the x-15 tail for an idea on wedge shape thickness…
March 1st, 2012 at 1:24 pm
Did the test shot have a toy Decepticon on a small pyramid, somewhere downrange? Cuz if I know engineers, and I think I do, I’d bet on it.
March 1st, 2012 at 1:37 pm
Aircraft carrier reactor in an Iowa hull, and bzzt you’re home. Like to see all nine fire at once?
March 1st, 2012 at 2:16 pm
I had a temp job 25 years ago at a place working on this stuff. They had a warehouse full of old submarine batteries we were hooking up to power the experiment. Didn’t seem particularly promising from the power requirements.
March 1st, 2012 at 2:36 pm
More railguns, yes please!
March 1st, 2012 at 2:41 pm
Rail guns are for losers. Nail guns with a scope. that’s tactical.
March 1st, 2012 at 3:26 pm
I’m partial to plasma launchers myself.
March 1st, 2012 at 5:13 pm
What about the phased energy cannon or fusion cannons??
March 1st, 2012 at 5:39 pm
Can you attach rails to a rail gun? If not, can it really ever be tacticool?
March 2nd, 2012 at 1:40 am
So with a range of 220 miles they’ll be able to hit things in low Earth orbit…
March 2nd, 2012 at 10:19 am
The rail guns use a large bank of capacitors to store up enough energy to fire, then all the caps are triggered at once for a huge surge of energy. The capacitors can be re-charged over a period of time. This timed re-charge reduces the short term energy requirements by spreading it out. This will allow the use of a smaller primary power source.