DAHLGREN, Va.—A warning siren bellowed through the concrete bunker of a top-secret Naval facility where U.S. military engineers prepared to demonstrate a weapon for which there is little defense.
Officials huddled at a video screen for a first look at a deadly new supergun that can fire a 25-pound projectile through seven steel plates and leave a 5-inch hole.
The weapon is called a railgun and requires neither gunpowder nor explosive. It is powered by electromagnetic rails that accelerate a hardened projectile to staggering velocity—a battlefield meteorite with the power to one day transform military strategy, say supporters, and keep the U.S. ahead of advancing Russian and Chinese weaponry.
In conventional guns, a bullet begins losing acceleration moments after the gunpowder ignites. The railgun projectile gains more speed as it travels the length of a 32-foot barrel, exiting the muzzle at 4,500 miles an hour, or more than a mile a second.
“This is going to change the way we fight,” said U.S. Navy Adm. Mat Winter, the head of the Office of Naval Research.
More @ WSJ
An artifact from the 1983 "starwars" program. The Navy has spent north of one trillion dollars trying to make it smaller. It is still the same size it was in 1988. It is the same size as the 16 inch main battery on a late WW2 battle ship with less than one third the useable range. It will prove really useful when the Navy gets its own space ships so that they can operate this weapon in the only place it actually works. Outer space. Until then it is what it was in 1985. Propaganda to scare Russians. --Ray
ReplyDelete:) Thanks and I imagine they know as much.
DeleteI am very happy about the improvement to the American military that I have seen recently. My Dad had invested a large amount of his life towards improved and upgrading the military might of the USA. While in the US Air Force he served in the European theater of action. Later literately invented night vision.[At first it was telescope that focused infra red waves. Later the US Army did its own modification to make it small and portable as we see today in night vision helmets. After that he was the head of one of the teams that developed cameras for the U-2. Then he was recruited to build laser communication for the Strategic Defense Initiative SDI (Star Wars).
ReplyDeleteVery interesting.
DeleteI also saw that the USA Navy has some improved small ships which made me very happy to see.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
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