American rail cannons: a fantastic weapon for the ships of the future
It seems that the US military is very fond of various new things, sometimes even too new: sometimes they rush into the Strategic Defense Initiative, then they order a combat laser. Finally, over the past few years, BAE Systems has commissioned another sample from DARPA. weapons, as if coming to our world from fantastic books and films. This is a rail gun, also referred to as railgun (railgun) or railgun.
The principle of operation of this miracle weapon is relatively simple: an electrically conducting object is mounted on two parallel electrodes (the same rails), which serves as a projectile. A constant current is applied to the electrodes because of which an unsecured projectile, closing an electric circuit, begins to move under the action of Lorentz force. However, the railgun has a whole set of drawbacks, which, strictly speaking, is the main headache of the creators of such weapons. So, railgun requires a current source of sufficient power, depending on the desired characteristics of the weapon. In addition, you need to properly select the materials of the rail and the projectile: firstly, to reduce losses on the resistance of conductors, and secondly, to avoid overheating and damage. In other words, the creation of a practically applicable railgun is not an easy task, it is long and very expensive.
What attracted the US military a new type of weapon? The fact is that a rail gun can accelerate small (up to 10-15 kilogram) projectiles to such speeds, at which they can cause significant damage to enemy equipment and objects only at the expense of their own kinetic energy. In addition to the obvious combat, such weapons have advantages in the field of supply: ammunition for railgun is simple and convenient, as well as not susceptible to detonation, because it does not have any explosive.
DARPA agency became interested in rail guns in the mid-90s of the last century. Then, evaluating the prospects of work on the topic, the approximate dates for the delivery of new weapons to the troops (after 2020) and its target niche - the replacement of existing artillery installations in navy. Soon, BAE Systems began researching a new direction and building the first, low-power experimental railguns. Gradually, all the necessary technologies and structural findings were worked out, as a result of which, at the end of 2006, they began to build a full-fledged prototype with a muzzle energy of 10 megajoules. System checks and first test launches began in the second half of 2007, and in February of next year the existence of this device was officially announced. Then the first video of the shots and data on the installation parameters appeared: the initial blank speed was 2520 meters per second, which is eight times the speed of sound. In December 2010, American designers once again “boasted”, but now the muzzle energy was already more than 32 MJ. The same gun fired a thousandth anniversary shot from the beginning of work on the topic. All these experiments are of some interest, but so far exclusively scientific. The fact is that the experimental rail guns are not small in themselves - they are a structure a couple of tens of meters long and 2,5-3 meters wide / high. And this is only the railgun itself, and yet the corresponding capacitor bank with generators is “attached” to it. In other words, the current rail guns are not weapons ready for practical use, but purely laboratory experimental samples.
Of course, such guns the size of an entire building will not interest anyone. In this regard, DARPA recently attracted the company to Raytheon. The contract for 10 billion requires her to create and build a prototype of a new power plant capable of providing power for the railgun. In addition, the task implies that the power plant will have dimensions and weights suitable for placement on ships. If Raytheon manages to make a system called the PFN (Pulse Forming Network), then in the future it can be used not only in conjunction with railguns, but also, for example, with combat lasers. Raytheon doesn’t have much time to develop and manufacture the first PFN specimen, since it is planned to begin testing the railgun installed on the ship in 2018 year. Nevertheless, it is impossible to exclude changes in terms, maybe even repeated.
Besides, from BAE Systems and General Atomics (this company was attracted to the project for “duplication” of work) they demand to make a gun with muzzle energy about 64 MJ, target range for launching nine-kilogram projectile not less than 450-500 kilometers and rate of fire from 6-7 shots per minute. For obvious reasons, full-scale range tests have not yet been carried out, but calculations show that the 32-megajoule railgun "throws" ammunition into 10 kilograms of kilometers on the 350-400. There are no requirements for increasing the velocity of the projectile: it is likely that DARPA considers the flight range and weight of the blank to be a priority. However, where the big problems are waiting for the developers of guns in the field of "trunk". The fact is that a huge initial acceleration of the projectile leads to complete wear of the existing rails for 8-10 shots. Accordingly, in addition to improving directly the combat qualities, BAE Systems and General Atomics will have to seriously refine the design.
The first carriers of the railgun will have to be the destroyers of the Zumwalt project. According to rumors, these ships were originally designed in such a way that their equipment could be included at low cost as new systems, for example, PFN, and new weapons. How rumors are true, is still unknown. Nevertheless, even from the information about Zumvoltah, we can draw the appropriate conclusions. It seems that the US military intends to get hold of weapons in their arsenal with a significant range of combat, in addition to the available missiles. From them, it should be noted, the railgun in a favorable direction differs in that each rocket costs a lot of money and is destroyed when it reaches its goal. The rail gun, in turn, costs even more, but only shells are spent, which are orders of magnitude cheaper than a single missile. In addition, the hypersonic disc is almost impossible to intercept by existing means. It is also worth recalling the American thrust to attacks from a decent distance at which the enemy will not be able to provide an adequate response.
Now, as the term for adopting the Zumvolt with rail artillery is the middle of the 20-s. However, this requires the continuation of work, and the railgun project has recently been threatened with closure. Recall last fall, the US Senate demanded, at least, to reduce the cost of "futuristic" programs, or even abandon them. The military managed to keep the railgun creation project in full, but the air-based laser (Boeing YAL) was not destined to continue testing.
The principle of operation of this miracle weapon is relatively simple: an electrically conducting object is mounted on two parallel electrodes (the same rails), which serves as a projectile. A constant current is applied to the electrodes because of which an unsecured projectile, closing an electric circuit, begins to move under the action of Lorentz force. However, the railgun has a whole set of drawbacks, which, strictly speaking, is the main headache of the creators of such weapons. So, railgun requires a current source of sufficient power, depending on the desired characteristics of the weapon. In addition, you need to properly select the materials of the rail and the projectile: firstly, to reduce losses on the resistance of conductors, and secondly, to avoid overheating and damage. In other words, the creation of a practically applicable railgun is not an easy task, it is long and very expensive.
What attracted the US military a new type of weapon? The fact is that a rail gun can accelerate small (up to 10-15 kilogram) projectiles to such speeds, at which they can cause significant damage to enemy equipment and objects only at the expense of their own kinetic energy. In addition to the obvious combat, such weapons have advantages in the field of supply: ammunition for railgun is simple and convenient, as well as not susceptible to detonation, because it does not have any explosive.
DARPA agency became interested in rail guns in the mid-90s of the last century. Then, evaluating the prospects of work on the topic, the approximate dates for the delivery of new weapons to the troops (after 2020) and its target niche - the replacement of existing artillery installations in navy. Soon, BAE Systems began researching a new direction and building the first, low-power experimental railguns. Gradually, all the necessary technologies and structural findings were worked out, as a result of which, at the end of 2006, they began to build a full-fledged prototype with a muzzle energy of 10 megajoules. System checks and first test launches began in the second half of 2007, and in February of next year the existence of this device was officially announced. Then the first video of the shots and data on the installation parameters appeared: the initial blank speed was 2520 meters per second, which is eight times the speed of sound. In December 2010, American designers once again “boasted”, but now the muzzle energy was already more than 32 MJ. The same gun fired a thousandth anniversary shot from the beginning of work on the topic. All these experiments are of some interest, but so far exclusively scientific. The fact is that the experimental rail guns are not small in themselves - they are a structure a couple of tens of meters long and 2,5-3 meters wide / high. And this is only the railgun itself, and yet the corresponding capacitor bank with generators is “attached” to it. In other words, the current rail guns are not weapons ready for practical use, but purely laboratory experimental samples.
Of course, such guns the size of an entire building will not interest anyone. In this regard, DARPA recently attracted the company to Raytheon. The contract for 10 billion requires her to create and build a prototype of a new power plant capable of providing power for the railgun. In addition, the task implies that the power plant will have dimensions and weights suitable for placement on ships. If Raytheon manages to make a system called the PFN (Pulse Forming Network), then in the future it can be used not only in conjunction with railguns, but also, for example, with combat lasers. Raytheon doesn’t have much time to develop and manufacture the first PFN specimen, since it is planned to begin testing the railgun installed on the ship in 2018 year. Nevertheless, it is impossible to exclude changes in terms, maybe even repeated.
Besides, from BAE Systems and General Atomics (this company was attracted to the project for “duplication” of work) they demand to make a gun with muzzle energy about 64 MJ, target range for launching nine-kilogram projectile not less than 450-500 kilometers and rate of fire from 6-7 shots per minute. For obvious reasons, full-scale range tests have not yet been carried out, but calculations show that the 32-megajoule railgun "throws" ammunition into 10 kilograms of kilometers on the 350-400. There are no requirements for increasing the velocity of the projectile: it is likely that DARPA considers the flight range and weight of the blank to be a priority. However, where the big problems are waiting for the developers of guns in the field of "trunk". The fact is that a huge initial acceleration of the projectile leads to complete wear of the existing rails for 8-10 shots. Accordingly, in addition to improving directly the combat qualities, BAE Systems and General Atomics will have to seriously refine the design.
The first carriers of the railgun will have to be the destroyers of the Zumwalt project. According to rumors, these ships were originally designed in such a way that their equipment could be included at low cost as new systems, for example, PFN, and new weapons. How rumors are true, is still unknown. Nevertheless, even from the information about Zumvoltah, we can draw the appropriate conclusions. It seems that the US military intends to get hold of weapons in their arsenal with a significant range of combat, in addition to the available missiles. From them, it should be noted, the railgun in a favorable direction differs in that each rocket costs a lot of money and is destroyed when it reaches its goal. The rail gun, in turn, costs even more, but only shells are spent, which are orders of magnitude cheaper than a single missile. In addition, the hypersonic disc is almost impossible to intercept by existing means. It is also worth recalling the American thrust to attacks from a decent distance at which the enemy will not be able to provide an adequate response.
Now, as the term for adopting the Zumvolt with rail artillery is the middle of the 20-s. However, this requires the continuation of work, and the railgun project has recently been threatened with closure. Recall last fall, the US Senate demanded, at least, to reduce the cost of "futuristic" programs, or even abandon them. The military managed to keep the railgun creation project in full, but the air-based laser (Boeing YAL) was not destined to continue testing.
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