Navy perfects rail gun

[SMOKEYMOUNTAIN]

Its not the magnetic force that shreds them, I've built rail-guns a plenty. Its not perfected, not by a long shot. They are terribly fun toys actually. This is rather old news, navy has been working on advanced rail-gun technology for more than three decades. The same problems we faced then are still relevant now. In fact, the primary issue of longevity and durability have never been solved.

The plasma arc that rides behind the projectile is the problem and the propulsion. We have an issue with the nature of materials that has yet to be overcome. I've used copper rails (cheap and last only a few shots before the ablating process wrecks them) and tungsten rails (Super expensive, and they still ablate quickly under high energy or rapid fire). I've used lexan barrels over an inch thick and they still fail under the barrel pressures generated in firing. This is all small scale stuff. The navy is struggling under a huge issue of scale. Big guns make the stresses my prototypes saw look like a fart.

A single Tomahawk cruise missile costs roughly $600,000. A non-explosive guided railgun projectile could cost much less.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/12/10/navy-railgun-shoots-bullets-electromagnet/

It's all about cost to benefit ratio.

So long as the Navy can keep the cost of each 'firing of an individual rail projectile and associated maintenance costs' lower than the 600K blown for each Tomahawk cruise missile (which I'm assuming the Navy has cut the cost down to the bare minimum), it's all good.

But then again, time your weapon system is down for maintenance is a huge concern, so we shall see.

[freonr22]

Exactly, in fact all millitary coil and rail guns utilize capacitor banks.. hell EVERY design uses capacitor banks. Rise time between shots is a problem. ON a ship though you have massive space avail. The powder magazines are empty, repurposed to cap banks you can run quite a few shots before having to pause for a recharge off the diesel engines output.

When I mentioned 2K cost for making a railgun, you know what 90% of the cost is? Caps. Not only do you need very strong ones, but you need very very very high grade and consistant ones. Thats pricey. Not only that but you usually have to run them in oil baths to cool them. On top of that, you are playing with fire, litterally. One wrong move with a cap-bank and you are litterally ash. It will burn you away moments. Its not fun and lol games. We are talking serious high energy fun here. I have had a catastrophic failure in one of my designs and a nasty scar as a reminder and watched 5500 bucks go up in flames and sparks.

WOW! do you have any videos of your toys? (Off Topic) about 10 years ago a friend did some 50,000ft model rockets about 6' tall. he said it was about $2000 a pop. I never saw any vids of it, but I saw the rocket.

[meaty-btz]

I have vids, but not for public consumption. Most of my work was paid for via grants and those grants had contracts and those contracts rules. I can talk about things in general but thats it. I am working on some new ones on my own power and money and those I can share. Money is a problem right now so it may be a while. Still though, I will delight in sharing once I can. I love this stuff and whish more people did crazy, fun, and daring things in life. If anyone wants to design one and wants some critiques I am glad to offer mine. Innovation and creativity is the strength of our nation.