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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 edIII on Thursday April 27 2017, @01:15AM
That's why I thought they were full of hyperbole. Pinpoint accuracy means being able to throw a dart into the same hole it made the first time, over and over again. Your shots literally line up to a 'pinhole of light'. This is at Mach 6 with 110 miles of atmospheric conditions like you pointed out.
Take a thumbtack, put a hole in your living room wall, and that's the target an air craft carrier will hit repeatedly from 110 miles away with a passive bullet. Not that the pinpoint target would survive repeated bullets, but whatever.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.