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Pretty awesome. There's an unfortunate focus in the admiral's comments on ship-to-ship warfare, which really isn't something we get a lot of nowadays. What's

by hugh3 16y ago

Pretty awesome. There's an unfortunate focus in the admiral's comments on ship-to-ship warfare, which really isn't something we get a lot of nowadays. What's deliberately not mentioned is how useful this might be for shooting down a missile at launch. It is, as they say, hard to hit a bullet with a bullet. But hitting a bullet with a much faster bullet...

iuhjyftgrd 16y ago
That's their main use With a missile coming toward you at Mach 2-3 you don't want to be shooting subsonic cannon shells at it. The rail gun ammunition is much smaller so you can carry much more of it and make a much more mobile gun turret because it doesn't need to store tonnes of shells or have a feed back to a magazine.
- Estragon 16y ago
  But if you look at the video, it's clear they're a long way from making any kind of agile turret out of this. It's HUGE.
  - scdlbx 16y ago
    It is not that big compared to the guns on a destroyer or a battleship. It is still large and bulky, but not that far off. Current destroyer's gun: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5%22/54_caliber_Mark_45_gun http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5%22/54_caliber_Mark_45_gun Iowa Class gun: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16%22/50_caliber_Mark_7_gun http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16%22/50_caliber_Mark_7_gun
    - tsotha 16y ago
      Yeah. The part of the turret you can see when you look at the ship is only the tip of the iceberg.
- tsotha 16y ago
  They'll be able to hit incoming missiles, but the primary strength of the system is as long-range artillery for land attack. It won't have the rate of fire you'd need to defend yourself against multiple incoming missiles.
steve19 16y ago
Thier main use will be hitting targets far in land. The article says "Indeed, a railgun could be used to inflict just such harm on another vessel.", which is true, it could be used for this purpose, but they would not be sinking money into this just for that.

by hugh3 16y ago

iuhjyftgrd 16y ago

That's their main use With a missile coming toward you at Mach 2-3 you don't want to be shooting subsonic cannon shells at it. The rail gun ammunition is much smaller so you can carry much more of it and make a much more mobile gun turret because it doesn't need to store tonnes of shells or have a feed back to a magazine.

Estragon 16y ago
But if you look at the video, it's clear they're a long way from making any kind of agile turret out of this. It's HUGE.
- scdlbx 16y ago
  It is not that big compared to the guns on a destroyer or a battleship. It is still large and bulky, but not that far off. Current destroyer's gun: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5%22/54_caliber_Mark_45_gun http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5%22/54_caliber_Mark_45_gun Iowa Class gun: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16%22/50_caliber_Mark_7_gun http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16%22/50_caliber_Mark_7_gun
  - tsotha 16y ago
    Yeah. The part of the turret you can see when you look at the ship is only the tip of the iceberg.
tsotha 16y ago
They'll be able to hit incoming missiles, but the primary strength of the system is as long-range artillery for land attack. It won't have the rate of fire you'd need to defend yourself against multiple incoming missiles.

steve19 16y ago

Thier main use will be hitting targets far in land. The article says "Indeed, a railgun could be used to inflict just such harm on another vessel.", which is true, it could be used for this purpose, but they would not be sinking money into this just for that.