US Navy to publicly show railgun for the first time

[SvenSvensonov]

The US Navy will publicly show their formidable railgun at the Naval Future Force Science and Technology Expo in Washington D.C. on February 4. The formidable electromagnetic cannon launches solid projectiles over 100 nautical miles at more than six times the speed of sound. You can see it in action here:

From US Navy to publicly show their amazing railgun for the first time ever

 

[C130]

i wonder if it's possible to fire a glide bomb out of a rail gun. should be lot of cheaper firing them 100 KM then another 100KM glide

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

i wonder if it's possible to fire a glide bomb out of a rail gun. should be lot of cheaper firing them 100 KM then another 100KM glide

I would think you would have brought this up as a nasty use. Just think of the standoff distance.

 

[nvKyleBrown]

i wonder if it's possible to fire a glide bomb out of a rail gun. should be lot of cheaper firing them 100 KM then another 100KM glide

Small correction - 100nm would be around 170km. The goal is to reduce cost of putting a munition on target. Adding wings to the bomb pushes the cost back up. Knowing the US military, they will do that.

Oh, and the round would not be doing Mach 6 after 100 miles - it would be coasting in by then at something closer to terminal velocity.

 

[Genesis]

I hate you US, at least give us 5 years to catch up, we still have to divert resources to improve living standards.

BTW, is this a game changer? Or is this a upgrade?

 

[C130]

Small correction - 100nm would be around 170km. The goal is to reduce cost of putting a munition on target. Adding wings to the bomb pushes the cost back up. Knowing the US military, they will do that.

Oh, and the round would not be doing Mach 6 after 100 miles - it would be coasting in by then at something closer to terminal velocity.

i don't know about range or anything just putting a number out there.
i think it would ne cheaper than sending up a jet to drop the same kinda weapon.
you just fire it out of the rail gun assuming the electronics/airframe can withstand 60,000gs
guess i'm saying a rail gun version of Vulcano/Excalibur

it clearly says at the moment of firing the projective is going nearly 2.4 km/s how long it will withstand those speeds before friction/gravity slows down is beyond me.

just think it would be kool to fire some kinda guided bomb/drone from a rail fun at the 45 degree angle and let it glide in with a small explosive warhead 2 to 3 pounds.

 

[papertiger]

It will be a game gamechanger once it becomes ubiquitous.

Imagine having a navy where every Destroyer class + capital ship has one of these! You could literally rain down devastating firepower unseen ever before, and cheaply.

 

[AMDR]

Two of these on the Zumwalt class would be devastating.