Apr 09, 2014 19:00:00

The U.S. Navy announces the world's first onboard test of a railgun that shoots shells at about seven times the speed of sound

The US Navy is developing a device '

railgun ' that shoots objects using the force of electromagnetic induction, which is the operating principle of electrical equipment, and in a continental experiment conducted in Virginia, it is 6 to 7 times the speed of sound. I have succeeded in firing a cannonball at the speed of . In 2016, the US Navy announced that it would conduct the world's first railgun launch experiment on board, and a movie explaining the details of the railgun has been released.

Navy to Deploy Electromagnetic Railgun Aboard JHSV
http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=80055

You can check what kind of weapon the railgun that the US Navy is preparing for actual battle deployment from the following movie.

US Navy unveils high-speed rail gun --YouTube


Railgun shells fired using electromagnetic induction rather than gunpowder are about seven times faster than the speed of sound, and can reach Philadelphia, 200 km from Washington, in less than three minutes, compared to traditional cannons. Also has a longer range.

Matthew Klunder of the Navy Research Facility said, 'Railguns are becoming a reality rather than the dream weapons that appear in science fiction movies. Railgun bullets are small in size and can be mass-transported.' If realized, weapons using explosives will be a product of the past.

Not only the power and size, but also the low cost of the shell is one of the advantages of the railgun. A railgun cannonball costs $ 25,000 per shot, which is an exceptional price compared to a missile that costs $ 500,000 to $ 1.5 million per shot. ..

Railguns are effective as anti-aircraft weapons and are effective in shooting down cruise missiles and intercontinental ballistic missiles. It is also possible to shoot down multiple missiles at the same time at a lower cost than before.

The development target of the railgun is a shell speed of Mach 7 (2382.03 meters per second) and a range of 160 kilometers, and according to Klunder, the shell can reach the atmosphere.

A movie released by the US Navy shows a shell shot by a railgun penetrating three pieces of reinforced concrete.

Here are six iron plates pierced by shells fired from a railgun. The power of the railgun can be seen from the miserable iron plate.

The U.S. Navy has been experimenting with two railgun prototypes for some time, and will be used by BAE Systems in the United Kingdom for the onboard launch experiment scheduled for 2016.

The ship used for the onboard launch experiment is an integrated high-speed transport ship called JHSV . However, the railgun will not be mounted on the JHSV in the future, and the JHSV has a vast mounting space, so it was selected for the experiment.

U.S. officials were worried that the cut in defense budget would lag behind China and Russia, which are focusing on developing anti-ship ballistic missile systems, in terms of technology development, but railgun experiments Hopefully, that worry can be unnecessary.