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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, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 27 2017, @08:27AM (1 child)
I guess that depends on your target. I guess if you target a closed structure, there's value in first breaking through the wall, and then exploding inside, in order to destroy as much as possible there. If exploding outside, the structure will provide protection; if exploding inside, the structure will instead prevent the destructive energy go wasted outside.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday April 27 2017, @02:37PM
You have nailed the definition of "armor piercing" precisely. When a tank is hit with an armor piercing charge, the projectile doesn't enter into the tank at all. Instead, the projectile sets off the internal shaped charge, which is very precisely aimed at a point maybe half as big around as a pencil. The plasma created in that shaped charge burns through, and enters the tank, then ricochets around inside of the steel hull. Anything the plasma touches is toast, whether it be electronics, ammunition, the tank commander, the tank driver, or the pinup taped beside the gunsights.
Most definitely, often times, you want to deliver your destructive energy INSIDE of a target.