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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: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 27 2017, @04:53AM (1 child)
At least two things come to mind. First is the fact that part of the barrel, or rail, is destroyed during each firing, sending a shower of sparks out with the projectile. The other factor is the shear speed of the projectile actually causing the air around it to combust.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Thursday April 27 2017, @05:34AM
I vote number 2: The instant exothermic compression of the air in front of the Mach 6 projectile in a barrel. Already showed up on a previous test video.
Might also include some plasma or ionized air (electrical discharges?) from all the electrical and magnetic fields..