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The only U.S. Navy ships that can produce enough electrical power to get the desired performance are the three Zumwalt-class destroyers (DDG-1000 series); they can generate 78 megawatts of power, more than is necessary to power a railgun. However, the Zumwalt has been cancelled and no further units will be built.
How powerful is the Navy railgun?
A high-velocity projectile leaves the gun at speeds up to seven times the speed of sound. The kinetic energy is theoretically enough to inflict serious damage on a surface ship without the explosives.
How far can the Navy rail gun shoot?
110 nautical miles
The meter-long projectile was first developed exclusively as a round for the Navy’s experimental railgun, a $500 million effort that purported to use electricity to fire projectiles at speeds of up to Mach 6 and ranges of up to 110 nautical miles.
The US Navy is canceling research and development on the much-hyped electromagnetic railgun after spending approximately half a billion dollars over 15 years. The service cited fiscal constraints, combat system integration challenges, and technology maturation of other weapons as the main reasons for the decision.
Why did the Navy cancel the railgun?
Why are coilguns so inefficient?
Why do I think coilguns are so inefficient? Because they inherently have a long “air gap” down the middle of the firing tube. It builds in a relatively huge amount of magnetic reluctance in the magnetic circuit.
Is a Gauss rifle a rail gun?
Gauss rifles, or coilguns, use electrified coils to generate a magnetic field that accelerates ferromagnetic projectiles to high speeds. This is a similar, but distinct concept from railguns, which, as their name implies, get their projectiles going using field generated between current-conducting rails.
What happened to the Navy railgun?
The Navy has announced that it is pulling funds from the much-hyped electromagnetic railgun in order to shift those monetary resources to hypersonic missiles and other high-tech weapons.
Is the Navy rail gun dead?
The United States has lost the railgun wars.
Does the US have a rail gun?
In July 2017, the Office of Naval Research announced that the Navy’s electromagnetic railgun was ready for field demonstrations. BATH, Maine — The U.S. Navy has pulled the plug, for now, on a futuristic weapon that fires projectiles at up to seven times the speed of sound using electricity.
Will the US Navy build its own railgun?
The U.S. navy has contracted General Atomics and BAE Systems to develop its own version of the railgun. A prototype weapon fired several rounds last year, but that occurred on a testing range, not aboard a warship.
Will the Navy finally test its electromagnetic railgun on a ship?
After more than a decade of research and development and upwards of $500 million in funding, the Navy finally plans on testing its much-hyped electromagnetic railgun on a surface warship in a major milestone for the beleaguered weapons system, Navy documents reveal.
What happened to the railgun?
The Navy’s Railgun Is Finally Dead 1 The U.S. Navy is finally canceling its electromagnetic railgun development program. 2 The railgun appears to be the victim of the service’s new emphasis on great power competition. 3 Although impressive, the railgun has been overshadowed by other weapons, particularly hypersonics.
What is the difference between a gun and a railgun?
Regular guns use the pressure from an ignited gunpowder charge to expel a projectile from the barrel, sending it flying on a ballistic trajectory. Railguns, meanwhile, using electricity and magnetism instead of gunpowder and chemical energy to accelerate a projectile down a pair of rails.