Navy breaks record with railgun test-shot

[unhappycamper]

Navy breaks record with railgun test-shot
By Zachary M. Peterson - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Jan 31, 2008 18:32:19 EST

DAHLGREN, VA. — The Navy set a new world record for the most powerful electromagnetic railgun when it fired a test shot here Thursday morning.

The gun fired an aluminum projectile at 10.68 megajoules. A joule is the work needed to produce one watt of energy for one second. A megajoule is 1 million joules.

Guests including Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead and Rear Adm. William Landay, head of the Office of Naval Research, witnessed the shot via a live video feed at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren. The gun was launched from a control center after approximately four minutes of charging the electromagnetic rails. After the charge, the gun fired and witnesses saw a quick burst of flame as the projectile, traveling at 2,500 meters per second, or Mach 7, hit its target.

Roughead called the gun a “revolutionary approach to naval warfare.” He acknowledged the Navy is “a ways from seeing this in the fleet,” but said it is important that the service “never loses sight of the next big thing.”

The previous railgun record of 9 megajoules was held by the Center for Electromagnetic Materials and Devices at the University of Texas, according to the Office of Naval Research. The Institute for Advanced Technology, also at the university, certifies electromagnetic railgun launches.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/01/navy_railgun_test_080131w/



uhc comment: Previous threads on the rail gun -->

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=259&topic_id=10074
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=259&topic_id=10627

[formercia]

1. That's a hot projectile

The highest velocity I have been able to get out of a rifle using powder and sabot rounds is just over 5,000 fps. At those velocities, the amount of energy applied to the target for a given surface area exceeds the yield strength of most materials. Steel melts and vaporizes. There is so little delay from firing to impact, that you can see the bullet hit the target before the recoil blurs the view.

[madrchsod]

2. aimed at a chinese port city in the future.......