Turkish railgun, or ...
It is clear that weapons The Internet began to boil, massively retyping photographs and a video shot by the Turkish military, but I think you shouldn’t draw premature conclusions and enroll Turkey to the “rail club” ahead of time, as some media rushed to do.
Cannon, let's face it, modest. Its caliber is 35 mm. Projectile weight - 1 kg.
“Up to 50 km” is both 1 km and 10. Who and how there "effectively" can hit a distance of up to 50 km kilogram little thing, I do not dare say. And how much it will fly.
In general, the experiment was conducted with a claim to success. Like shot, and not once. How about in order to show where and how you got - naturally silent, for military secrets.
By the way, I praise the way Turkish operators have all shown. With some such hint that the gun is mobile, unlike, say, the American monster. Wheeled chassis, all things ...
But here is another photo, not cropped. And on it is clear and understandable that the “battery” of the installation is more than modest.
For comparison, it is worthwhile to see how the railroad case was arranged by the Americans.
It is noticeable that the Americans "battery" case is furnished pretty massively. True, the Americans and the projectile weighs 16 kg against 1, and the caliber is not a toy 35 mm, but quite normal sea 127 mm.
But how much is it worth seriously considering the railgun as a weapon in general?
Many smart people have come to the conclusion that they are not worth it. And the arguments are embedded directly in the design of the railgun.
Here it is worth considering the very principle of this miracle weapon. Physics of the purest water. I will not go into details, they are easy to find, and so, two elements. The power source, which I called the battery (actually it is a capacitor) and the launcher. PU, roughly speaking, consists of two parallel conductors, which is why they called it a railgun.
A powerful current pulse is applied to the conductors-rails. Something like a short circuit occurs, as in welding, and a plasma arc ignites between the rail electrodes.
A current begins to flow through the plasma, from one electrode to another. The current causes the emergence of a powerful electromagnetic field that will affect the entire device.
Since the rails are rigidly fixed in the barrel, the following thing happens: the Lorentz force starts working, which starts to move charged particles by the electromagnetic field. That is - the plasma. Since the plasma in our case - the only thing that can move.
The Lorentz force is not aware of the existence of Newton's Third Law, so the movement will occur with great acceleration. And the plasma begins to move along the channel (if you can put it that way) the trunk.
This plasma clot is also rightly called the "plasma piston," as if it were an analogue of a powder charge in a firearm. Yes, the usual projectile under the influence of such forces would simply evaporate. Therefore, the railgun shells are ordinary blanks of a very refractory material that are designed to hit targets solely due to the accumulated kinetic energy.
Although yes, they accumulate this energy - be healthy.
In addition, there is an analogue of artillery wad - a metal gasket between the plasma and the projectile. It does not allow the projectile to evaporate ahead of time, and evaporating itself under the influence of temperature, it becomes the feed for the plasma.
In general, many experts believe that the railgun and without a blank is a weapon in itself, for it is capable of spitting here with such clots of plasma, accelerated to a tremendous speed - up to 50 km / sec.
And so the speed of the projectile at the exit can be up to 15 km / s. Artillery powder projectile can give a maximum speed of 2 km / s.
But I repeat, we forget about the high-explosive, high-explosive, cluster, shrapnel and other projectiles, because the lot of the railgun is a pig, which has been overclocked to great speed.
With the device figured out, let's talk about the application.
With combat use, we recognize immediately, not very. But first, consider the merits that the Americans once famously painted.
1. Huge projectile speed. In combat conditions up to 10 km / s. It is possible and more, but there is no point, the air and friction about him has not been canceled, so the projectile will be slowed down by the force of friction. Plus overheating.
2. Penetrating power. Yes, due to the speed, the carbide shell will penetrate any armor, it is a fact. And it is quite possible that even an active defense will not save, since the explosive within it will simply not have time to explode.
3. Long range direct shot. It can be 8 – 9 km, and the projectile travels this distance in less than a second. This is impressive, because to dodge such a blow is unrealistic even for an airplane. Pro tank even think sad.
In addition, it seems to me, for a railgun it will be very easy with aiming. Even when shooting long distances. And it’s not at all (it's 3-8 km) and you don’t have to bother with things like preemption and wind correction, for example. Lupi, as it is, do not miss. The speed of the projectile will do its job.
4. Firing range. Experts again believe that the railgun shell can be effectively used at a distance of 300 km. On the one hand, it seems to be a competitor for rockets, on the other hand, it is a tool of point application and the railgun shell is not able to tear apart the shell.
5. Cheap and easy ammunition. Yes, a tungsten projectile in an aluminum capsule is not very expensive. And the explosive inside is not needed, firstly, it will not survive at the start, secondly, the projectile dispersed to such speed if it hits something, and so it blows - it will not seem enough. It is possible that more effective than any explosives. But the cheapness of shells and ease of storage is easily leveled by the cost of the railgun itself.
What can be said about the shortcomings? It is possible to say about disadvantages that they win advantages over a clear advantage.
1. Power sources. This is a sore point, as the railgun feels best near the power plant. The batteries of the capacitors that organize the shot need to be charged. Considering the capacity of existing installations, and this is “only” 25 MW, we are not talking about mobile power plants at all, but in fact only some fortified areas are drawn on land or the protection of stationary objects as air defense. Next, I stress, with the power plant.
Either we see a ship of class from a destroyer and higher, and generally it is desirable with an atomic reactor.
2. Cost. It is worth noting here about the cost of ammunition, but about the cost of the barrel. It is clear that exposure to plasma almost destroys the trunk. A thousand shots so far is the ultimate dream. But the cost of one shot, taking into account the cost of barrel wear, according to some reports, is about $ 25. Let's just say, not a little, even taking into account the possibility of destroying more expensive equipment such as one shot tank or plane.
3. Disguise. It's all so sad that I’ll say briefly: this thing unmasks itself with the very first shot so that the advanced enemy can only be sent in the direction of the source of EMI-perturbations of the five cruise missiles. It works, who does not believe - ask Dudayev. A rocket flew into the phone there, and here ...
By the way, without EMP, sound effects are also nothing. The heated plasma, when it comes out of the trunk, what does it do? That's right, expanding. And the crash is quite a while.
In general, while it is impossible to consider it as a weapon. Even being very so optimistic. Yes, as experimental models of railgun exist and not just exist, but develop. But talking about real combat use is not yet worth it, as well as making any kind of bet on this type of weapon.
Example? Yes, here he is, "Zamvolt." The railgun was planned for use on this ship. The power plant destroyer allows it. But then what is the essence of the invisibility or invisibility of the destroyer, if after the first shot it will be on all radar screens? And then only the question of how quickly the opponents will react to this shot.
Railgun on a Ford-type aircraft carrier? Well, yes, it will probably be more appropriate. But is it necessary? A miracle cannon that fires miracle-projectiles on 300 or 400 km (we don’t even talk about accuracy and the ability to miss yet) would probably be out of place. If the shock group did not have X / NUMX F / A-50E / F Super Hornet fighter-bombers, each of which is able to transfer 18 tons of different ammunition to 2 000 km and km of them. But with the planes, the idea looks frankly not very.
If we talk about the ground railgun, then here is still more sad. The first unmasking shot may be the last, because the enemy does not need to shoot at the railgun. It is enough to strike the power station that feeds it, and the effect will be excellent at all: the railgun does not shoot, and the whole area is de-energized.
It turns out that if the sea basing of the railgun does not raise special issues (besides efficiency), then the land, with its mobility and vulnerability, does not at all give the slightest opportunity for optimism.
Of course, sooner or later, with the development of appropriate technologies, the railgun can turn into a true weapon. But it is a matter of time, moreover, many believe that it is a question of a very long period of time.
So let's not rush to congratulate the Turkish military on a successful experiment. In the Kurdish problems, railgun will not help them at all.
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