The Railgun is designed to shoot heavy artillery rounds usually fired by the batteries of heavy guns aboard U.S. warships. The difference is that instead of gunpowder, these rounds are propelled through a series of electromagnets lining the inside of the gun’s barrel. The charge from the electromagnets propel the round — likely the standard 155mm shell fielded by American destroyers — through the barrel at upwards of Mach 7, once fully developed.
via Navy 'Rail Gun' On Track; Industry Tests Set For This Month.
h/t War News Updates
Well, what goes around comes around. A little over a year ago, NASA was looking at a launch system that was part rail gun. Prior to that, we were looking at rail guns for hypervelocity impact testing. There was also the amusingly-named Slingatron, with the same idea of electromagnetic propulsion but with added centripetal force. Thankfully, that last one was for unmanned launches only.
Craig Swain
dgharvey
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Hm.
What current US destroyer has a 155mm gun?
Zumwalt-class destroyer, which I’ll admit isn’t “current” in that the first one isn’t due for commission until 2015. Perhaps they meant field artillery?
See, that’s why I said “current.”
Also, if you confuse “field artillery” with “destroyer” you probably shouldn’t be writing journalism about military matters.
Well, what I don’t know about artillery could fill a library.
I’ve had several interviews with newspaper reporters and cringed at what they messed up.
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