BAE Electromagnetic Railgun

How does it maintain a straight path without rifling?
 
At that short of a distance and at that speed, doubt drag is going to deviate it too far off the flight path.
 
But they still don't have a boat big enough to carry the electronics.
 
FluffyMcDeath said:
But they still don't have a boat big enough to carry the electronics.
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The larger vessels can do it. Right now they are in a projected five year development path for it to be small enough to be fielded on the smaller vessels.
 
FluffyMcDeath said:
But they still don't have a boat big enough to carry the electronics.
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They could always recommission:
missouri_large.jpg
 
Dammy said:
At that short of a distance and at that speed, doubt drag is going to deviate it too far off the flight path.
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No shit. I was thinking more like when they actually want to hit something that's trying to put as much distance between them and the gun.
 
Dammy said:
The larger vessels can do it. Right now they are in a projected five year development path for it to be small enough to be fielded on the smaller vessels.
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Well, they've come a long way since 2006 and the projectile is much bigger now but physics is pretty unforgiving. It could all go the way of the airborne laser (unless, of course, it was so close to being ready that they decided to push it underground by "defunding" it to hide it from rivals).
 
Glaucus said:
How does it maintain a straight path without rifling?
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You could probably induce spin via the magnetic fields, or even do it mechanically prior to being sent up the rail.

I'd imagine the latter would be easier to do.
 
I always thought a rail gun would be more of a line of sight weapon...
 
the_leander said:
You could probably induce spin via the magnetic fields, or even do it mechanically prior to being sent up the rail.
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Or they just might not bother which is even easier still. If you look at their projectile it looks like it is aerodynamically stabilized. Aerodynamically stabilized rounds such as armour penetraters are fired from large smoothbore guns partly because rifling puts some of the projectiles kinetic energy into useless rotation instead of the more valuable forward motion.
 
adz said:
I always thought a rail gun would be more of a line of sight weapon...
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It's simply a way of accelerating a projectile, just like ordinary chemical propellants, but more so. If you can lob things over the horizon with chemical propellants you can lob them further with a rail gun.
 
Glaucus said:
No shit. I was thinking more like when they actually want to hit something that's trying to put as much distance between them and the gun.
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OK, let here is the link to the article which states, "
It’s a true marvel of science, as all of this is accomplished with nothing more than kinetic energy. The projectiles do not contain any explosives. In fact, the Navy has been using non-aerodynamic rounds on purpose in tests so that a round doesn’t go off-range and smash through a neighboring town or interstate.​
One day, however, the Navy will be using conical projectiles for maximum penetration."​
 
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