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Sure, but missiles have to propel themselves, are very large compared to railgun projectiles, and are easier to break apart by putting a heavy wall of lead in t
by qball 7y ago
Sure, but missiles have to propel themselves, are very large compared to railgun projectiles, and are easier to break apart by putting a heavy wall of lead in the air.
Railgun projectiles have none of these disadvantages. They don't need propellant (or a warhead; the energy delivered upon impact is more than sufficient to break things without needing to explode), they're a solid projectile (and as such can't be as easily destroyed or knocked off course), and they're smaller than a missile is making them much more difficult to track.
To successfully defeat an incoming railgun projectile, it would both required sufficient detection technology coupled to a laser that would need to fully ablate it; where missiles require detection of a significantly larger object and can be defeated by shooting at them/more active protection measures.
- pm90 7y agoCould you hit a railgun with a railgun? Why wouldn't countries build massive anti-ship railguns to prevent any such ship from getting even close to their naval facilities?
- AnimalMuppet 7y ago> Could you hit a railgun with a railgun? "Smaller than a missile". You could, but it's harder.
- xyzzy_plugh 7y agoIndeed, we don't typically resort to shooting bullets at bullets to defend incoming gunfire.
- maccam94 7y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trophy_(countermeasure) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trophy_(countermeasure) (Granted, it's more anti-missile than anti-bullet)
- fkdo 7y agoMissiles are bigger (they carry their own engine and fuel), are in the sky longer due to their longer range, and shooting missiles from the sky has never been implemented with a high success rate in active combat.
- joemi 7y agoRailgun projectiles are smaller than missiles, but the guns themselves aren't smaller, are they?
- RantyDave 7y agoYou could hit a rail with a rail ... it would need to be a great shot though.