US Navy coughs $34.5m for hyper-kill railgun that DOESN'T self-destruct

The definitive anti-windmill weapon!

take em out from 200 miles away. I want one.

stealth boat

put this on a stealth boat,

now that would be a game changer.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2185831/Declassified-170million-Cold-War-Stealth-boat-snapped-2-5million-condition-scrap-parts.html

Value for money

In Pentagon terms anything with only six zeros after it must automatically be good value whether it works or not. Lets face it the million dollar loo seats worked.

Vid Shows....

In amongst the ablative gun destroying stuff an ablative gun destroying projectile with the external aerodynamics of something that might be an an ablative gun destroying projectile internal to the gun...

Just a moment!!1!!

"BAE Systems has been handed a $34.5m contract to design a new version of a potentially game-changing weapon of the future."

That's a tenth of what Phorm, including lying bastard Kent, has pissed away to date.... notwithstanding someone else having to scrub the piss off the walls and the opportunity to Boff, old crusty, Girlies up to the top of Everest.

Rah Rah Rah. Jolly HockeySticks.

Gosh... Really helped the niggers out with that one.

Yes!! The locals do do some nice stuff. Food wise.

I'm orf to ride my Horse.

Well done. Tra Lah Lah.

EMP

I know small scale is possible "seen plans to make one for $100 online" so wouldn't it be a problem is a very large electro-magnetic pulse was release at the barrel while it was firing causing the mass being fired to jump and make the barrel explode.

I can't see this being used for anything but very long range targets for that reason.

Aim?

How do you aim these things?

Also if you were picking a fight with the likes of China "ten rounds a minute", send 11 cruise missiles in a minute. Game over.

Dont use one set of rails!

Use 10 set of rails. Each rail set firing once a minute. Would give the cooling system a chance to work. if they could get enough juice they could even do salvo firing. Better chance of hitting something if you fire a salvo at it.

Plus there is the "My willy is bigger than your willy" boasting factor

"..the railgun could usher in the second era of the dreadnoughts.."

I seriously doubt that.

Building a railgun equipped humungo-battleship is all well and good, but has a slight snag. One good shot from someone else's railgun and that's a lot of investment down the tubes. Armour has a way to go here.

I'd have though that small, fast and cheap ships with railguns would be the way to go. All the railgun punch, none of the irrelevant armour, speed makes them more difficult to hit at long ranges and the low cost/simplicity makes them simple and quick to replace.

You have to remember why Dreadnoughts went the way of the Dodo in the first place. It was nothing to do with any limitations in the armament, it was because all it took to ruin one's day was a dive bomber in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Be fascinating to find out a little more...

There's some impressive engineering going on somewhere behind the scences

Be interesting to know the launcher type and material choices. i.e. is it a railgun with a solid armature or a plasma armature, or is it a coilgun? All of them have their drawbacks, and I'll be impressed if you can get anything like the number of shots prior to barrel failure that you can with conventional big guns.

10 shots per minute probably means several barrels, to avoid overheating problems. It also means that someone thinks they've made a reliable pulsed power source, capable of taking on perhaps 10MJ or so of energy and releasing it again in the appropriate timescales.

Sea Snake torpedo anyone?

"Delve special". Series 2, episode 1: A rocket for defence.

or for the more visual amongst you

"This is David Lander". Series 1, episode 5: The rocketing cost of defence.

Both as true today as they ever were. Truer, even.

Trouble with parody these days is that it's difficult make fiction more absurd than the reality it is mocking.

Love of Weaponry

I've always maintained that men's love of firearms isn't really a love of firearms. We just want better fireworks than the guy living next door..