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posted by LaminatorX on Friday April 11 2014, @11:55AM   Printer-friendly
from the Gauss-him?-I-just-met-him! dept.

Allen McDuffee writes the US Navy's latest weapon is an electromagnetic railgun launcher that can hurl a 23-pound projectile at speeds exceeding Mach 7 with a range of 100 miles turning a destroyer into super-long-range machine gun able to fire up to a dozen relatively inexpensive projectiles every minute. The Navy says the cost differential $25,000 for a railgun projectile versus $500,000 to $1.5 million for a missile will make potential enemies think twice about the economic viability of engaging U.S. forces. "[It] will give our adversaries a huge moment of pause to go: 'Do I even want to go engage a naval ship?'" says Rear Admiral Matt Klunder. "Because you are going to lose. You could throw anything at us, frankly, and the fact that we now can shoot a number of these rounds at a very affordable cost, it's my opinion that they don't win."

Engineers already have tested this futuristic weapon on land, and the Navy plans to begin sea trials aboard a Joint High Speed Vessel Millinocket in 2016. Railguns use electromagnetic energy known as the Lorenz Force to launch a projectile between two conductive rails. The high-power electric pulse generates a magnetic field to fire the projectile with very little recoil, officials say. Weapons like the electromagnetic rail gun could help U.S. forces retain their edge and give them an asymmetric advantage over rivals, making it too expensive to use missiles to attack U.S. warships because of the cheap way to defeat them. "Your magazine never runs out, you just keep shooting, and that's compelling."

 
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  • (Score: 2) by skullz on Friday April 11 2014, @04:37PM

    by skullz (2532) on Friday April 11 2014, @04:37PM (#30134)

    "the only warmonger on this planet is the US at this point that continuous with illegal warfare, meddles in the affairs of others and violates sovernty"

    Tell that to Ukraine.

    "I do not recall any war where two naval ships have engaged in a battle so this seems to be a huge waste of money indeed."

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_naval_battle s [wikipedia.org]

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 11 2014, @04:48PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 11 2014, @04:48PM (#30137)

    The conflict in the Ukraine is spawned by western powers. Read up a bit or can you only recite your mainstream media? Your government invested 5 billion in the destabilization of the Ukraine prior to the conflict. That is a proven fact.

    Did you actually read that Wikipedia article? It lists 3 engagements of the USA, none of which I would call a battle. There have been minor skirmishes only.

    • (Score: 2) by skullz on Friday April 11 2014, @05:10PM

      by skullz (2532) on Friday April 11 2014, @05:10PM (#30148)

      Yes but if you...

      Wait! You surprised me there! I haven't seen anything besides knee-jerk obvious trolling for so long my troll-dar was out of practice.

      *hat-tip*

    • (Score: 2) by khallow on Friday April 11 2014, @05:19PM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday April 11 2014, @05:19PM (#30152) Journal

      Only true, if you include Russia in that list of "western powers".

      Your government invested 5 billion in the destabilization of the Ukraine prior to the conflict.

      If that's true, then it's money well spent, given the piece of work that got kicked out.

      Did you actually read that Wikipedia article? It lists 3 engagements of the USA, none of which I would call a battle. There have been minor skirmishes only.

      The battle of Incheon. Turned the Korean War around and almost drove the Reds out of North Korea. Plus, how can you win a major naval battle in the future, if you don't bother to build the gear for it?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 11 2014, @05:49PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 11 2014, @05:49PM (#30175)

        If you really think the money was well spend on Ukraine you're have not the slightest clue on the geopolitical and economical entanglements. Ukraine did most of its trade with Russia, because their products are not suitable for the European markets and don't meet the quality requirements and standards. As a close friend and ally, Russia didn't mind the very high gas debts and charged a minimum for gas. After the coup d'état they raised those prizes to the global standard, ask them to pay back their debt and closed the trade zone. The latter is necessary because if Ukraine will import lots of European goods, Russia cannot allow them to enter over a free trade zone since it would threaten local businesses.

        Now Ukraine has to be bailed out of their dilemma which is mainly the obligation of the EU since they're responsible for this mess. The rest of Europe like Germany face another dilemma, they are heavily dependent on Russian gas and cannot implement sanctions that are demanded by the US. Russia showed a strong position which the US didn't expect. If Europe fails to implement sanctions, Russia may even benefit from the meddling of the Americans because Ukraine will be very unstable as they have a Russian population that fiercely oppose western influence.

        The US pushed this conflict because they aim to undermine Russia's influence as Russia is publicly in strong opposition to US foreign policy. That's the same reason why the US implemented a military coup in Iran 1953 and ended democracy there to isolate the country as much as possible. This has been a major success as without these measures, Iran would be the dominant power in the middle east. We will see the US implementing further aggression against north Korea as it is a good excuse to place military in Asian oceans and limit Chinese influence.

        The world however is not so blind anymore and the US increasingly isolates itself with these interaction. Even public opinions shift dramatically in countries that were former close allies in Europe. As a consequence the free trade zone between the US and Europe will surely fail and in the long term, the US is the major payer. It is about time you Americans wake up!