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from the is-that-a-railgun-or-are-you-just-happy-to-see-me? dept.
The Motley Fool's Rich Smith writes:
For more than three years now, I've been tracking the U.S. Navy's progress toward building a working electromagnetic railgun prototype — a Mach 6 cannon reputedly capable of striking targets 110 miles away with pinpoint accuracy.
Each railgun projectile would cost about $25,000 to produce — and if you're keeping track, then yes, success on the railgun project would yield a weapon boasting nearly twice the 67-mile range of Boeing's (NYSE:BA) Harpoon II missile but costing just 1/48th the Boeing missile's $1.2 million cost.
https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/04/22/navys-new-mach-6-em-railgun-almost-ready-for-prime.aspx
Electromagnetic Railgun - First shot at Dahlgren's new Terminal Range https://youtu.be/Pi-BDIu_umo
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Thursday April 27 2017, @12:54AM (1 child)
In Trump's idea of America those questions would get you sent to Gitmo.
On the other hand, $25k for what is basically a lump of iron? Who the hell can make bribes big enough that this shit is taken seriously?
/ we can be bunkies in Gitmo.
// damn
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by davester666 on Thursday April 27 2017, @05:42AM
It likely has to be made of special materials and a special shape to go through the atmosphere at Mach 6 without having too much draw and not deforming due to heat.
As a data point for this, the SR-71, made of Titanium alloy skin, going at up to Mach 3.2, the friction from going through air at upper altitudes was enough to generate enough heat to close the designed in gaps between panels so fuel would stop leaking out. And it's not exactly a brick going through the air.
These projectiles will go twice as fast, through much denser air at sea-level.
And then it also has to withstand the stress of being accelerated to that speed very quickly.
Finally, if the shape isn't just right (or deforms at all), they would have no idea where it winds up. Accuracy would be totally shot.