[7maghunter]

*You may have missed it, but this past summer the Navy put its new rail gun on the deck of the U.S.N.S. Millinocket at the ships homeport of San Diego.

The Joint High Speed Vessel was manufactured by Austal in Mobile.* But having one of the Navy's newest weapons on one of the Navy's newest ships bodes well for the Mobile ship builder.
"What it shows is the utility and flexibility that our platforms have." says Craig Perciavalle, Austal USA President.

The railgun is an electro-magnetic weapon that fires a hunk of metal at a target that could be up to 100 miles away.* But it's not the only new weapon the Navy is testing.* A helicopter drone system is said to be headed for some Austal's Littoral Combat Ships.* Last year, the Navy deployed a laser system on a ship in the Persian Gulf.* That system was tested using remote controlled target boats built by another Mobile company, Silver Ships.

Perciavalle says Austal is in talks with the Navy regarding future development involving the ships the company builds, but offered no specifics.* But he says the bottom line is, the more Austal ships are seen with a wide range of uses, the more valuable the become to the Navy.* For Austal, that means survival for the company and it's 4 thousand employees.

 

[Mad Scientist]

I wonder what the shipping costs would be to my FFL?

 

[BOB/MO]

That some big guns.

 

[Popeye]

I wonder what the shipping costs would be to my FFL? View attachment 13006

:LoL:

 

[Kobs]

CBS says impressive but also VERY SCARY :lol: what else is new

Edit: For them it's not complicated they ask is it a weapon, is it new? ok

SCARY!!!

 

[Will1911]

I'll take two please. I'd like one in pickup truck bed size and another for the roof of the house thank you :smile5:

 

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

I remember first reading about the rail gun back in the Mid 80s. It fired a nylon projectile then and required the electrical energy sufficient to jump start Los Angeles. They've evidently perfected them some since then. They are badass. But not if you don't have anything to shoot them at.

Alan

 

[kansas45]

Man. That's some gun! And the boat ain't bad either.

 

[Kobs]

What i find amazing when they shoot with it is the shock wave following that projectile on the video. it almost look like it moves trough jello or that it pushes against the fabric of time itself

 

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

It's certainly pushing against the fabric of air. For a gun with no propellant it sure makes a helluva fireball when it's shot.

Alan

 

[Rivervalley0311]

Smaller, cheaper more destructive.....what's not to like!! :thumbsup:

 

[DPM]

Yeah, I think I know what I want next LOL!

 

[Kobs]

It's certainly pushing against the fabric of air. For a gun with no propellant it sure makes a helluva fireball when it's shot.

Alan

:lol: It just reminded me of an old movie i saw called time cops where the "time machine" was doing a similar shockwave before going trough time. I know i have a vivid imagination:lol:

 

[Andy 22/308]

There's got to be some very cool tech in this that's not the gun itself. Scaling up the ship's ability to produce enough electricity could be a biggie. But maybe bigger than that is storing enough electricity to fire the gun, in some kind of storage that can release a huge burst of electricity without melting itself down.

That would be interesting stuff, and it's OK if you can say only so much.

 

[Kobs]

^^^ part of the ship must look like this but with much bigger capacitors filled with electric motors of the ship

This is a 24Kjoules capacitor (Kilojoule is metric system energy unit (electrical, mechanical or thermal) and equals to 1000 times of the amount of work done by a force of one newton to move an object one meter.)

Good read on it here
The Navy Wants To Fire Its Ridiculously Strong Railgun From The Ocean | Popular Science

 

[xt-17]

25k bullet...:yikes1:

 

[RMLamp]

Dealing with medical linear accelerators I work with physicists on a daily basis. One physicist I worked with was involved with lasers under development during President Reagan's SDI programs. The physicist told me they were using lasers so powerful you could drop a 1 1/2 inch thick steak trough it and two halves would hit the floor. That's R&D from 30 years ago and rail guns have been under development from about the same time. I'd love to see some of the stuff that's still under wraps.