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“The railgun is, for the moment, dead,” said Matthew Caris, a defense analyst at Avascent Group, a consulting firm. Navy ditches futuristic railgun, eyes hypersonic missiles Skip to main content
At its most prosaic, science fiction features an endless variety of sidearms—mostly variations on real weapons such as guns and swords. Among the best-known of these are the phaser—used in the Star Trek television series, films, and novels—and the lightsaber and blaster—featured in Star Wars movies, comics, novels, and TV shows.
The Electro-Magnetic Laboratory Rail Gun is a long-range naval weapon that fires projectiles using electricity instead of chemical propellants. Magnetic fields created by high electrical currents accelerate a sliding metal conductor, or armature, between two rails to launch projectiles at 4,500 mph to 5,600 mph. Electricity generated by the ...
A railgun or rail gun, sometimes referred to as a rail cannon, is a linear motor device, typically designed as a weapon, that uses electromagnetic force to launch high-velocity projectiles. The projectile normally does not contain explosives, instead relying on the projectile's high kinetic energy to inflict damage. [ 2 ]
Lyndon B. Johnson, the last Zumwalt, was being considered for the installation of a railgun in place of one of the 155 mm naval guns after the ship was built. This would be feasible because the installed Rolls-Royce turbine generators are capable of producing 78 megawatts (105,000 hp), enough for the electrically powered weapon.
ETC requires much less energy input from outside sources, like a battery, than a railgun or a coilgun would. Tests have shown that energy output by the propellant is higher than energy input from outside sources on ETC guns. [18] In comparison, a railgun currently cannot achieve a higher muzzle velocity than the amount of energy input.
Weapons under research or planned for development and use in the future.To be classified as a future weapon, a weapon must be the subject of actual research by military or industrial entities, or be considered a viable technology for future development.
First, the rails guiding the projectile must carry sufficient power. Each firing of the railgun sends tremendous current flow (almost half a million amperes) through the rails, causing rapid erosion of the rail's surfaces (through ohmic heating), and even vaporization of the rail surface. Early prototypes were essentially single-use weapons ...