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Space. The propellant for a large shell takes up more space than the shell it fires, it's tremendously dangerous to have around from both accidents and enemy i
by noir_lord 7y ago
Space.
The propellant for a large shell takes up more space than the shell it fires, it's tremendously dangerous to have around from both accidents and enemy impacts.
Compared with a rail gun which is room full of exquisitely machined inert metal blocks.
Cost - Those inert machined metal blocks are cheap in a military if not absolute sense.
- wiml 7y agoThough, this only really makes sense on a nuclear-powered ship. You've got to store your energy somehow, and I'm sure gunpowder is less energy-dense than diesel fuel, but from what I've read one of the big attractions of electric weapons is that you can replace all that chemical energy storage with far, far denser nuclear energy.