US Navy Railgun Update

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**LordOfTheSloths**

For all you Tau types, and anyone else interested in real high-tech weaponry

http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,123818,00.html?ESRC=navy-a.nl

**Kid_Kyoto**

Ah the Pentagon... one trillion dollars well spent i say.

We totally need rail guns to sink those pesky Al Qaida battleships and aircraft carriers that threaten us on the high seas.

(yes I know, I know they say it's for hitting inland targets, because a new technology with limited range the needs the #$%ing nuclear reactor to fire it is SO much better than a cruise missile)

**General Hobbs**

I'm all for military research and development. A lot of the great technological breakthroughs come during times of war or by the military.

**Jester**

*knock, knock* Special Delivery! Delivering either a nickel-tungsten slug or a specialized submunitions package at Mach 5, the BAE/GD Peacemaker ship mounted rail gun is like God's Judgement: swift and deadly. This killing edge technology is a full three generations beyond current FEATO missile technology and cannot be defeated by any existing countermeasure. A smaller version of the Peacemaker is scheduled to be the main armament on the M-12 Powell MBT, currently going thru field trials and set to deploy in 2026.

Be the fastest gun in the west with the Peacemaker!

**stonefox**

I'm all for military research and development. A lot of the great technological breakthroughs come during times of war or by the military.

Yes. Just imagine a $1000 tab on 5-minute worldwide deliveries when they decide to launch parcels by railgun when I'm 45 (21 now).

**Kid_Kyoto**

Posted By stonefox on 02/14/2007 8:10 PM

I'm all for military research and development. A lot of the great technological breakthroughs come during times of war or by the military.

Yes. Just imagine a $1000 tab on 5-minute worldwide deliveries when they decide to launch parcels by railgun when I'm 45 (21 now).

By the time you're 45 rampant deficits and inflation will mean a $1000 won't buy you coffee at Starbucks.

On the other hand 1000RMB, that will be some serious money.

**djones520**

Posted By stonefox on 02/14/2007 8:10 PM

I'm all for military research and development. A lot of the great technological breakthroughs come during times of war or by the military.

Yes. Just imagine a $1000 tab on 5-minute worldwide deliveries when they decide to launch parcels by railgun when I'm 45 (21 now).

There already ahead of you on that. Their building a device that will magnetically accelerate satellites into space, forgoing the need for rocket delivery systems.

http://www.launchpnt.com/Space_Launch.32.0.html

Hey Kyoto,

It's all really a pretense for the weaponry that their going to put onto our new space battle cruisers. They just don't want people knowing that we're preparing for war with alien species.

**Lorek**

I'm glad that we have this pretense to develop railgun technology; they're incredibly useful on spacecraft (and not just as weapons, either; think of them as a high-speed mail system).

That's an interesting new take on the linear accelerator launch platform; I like the idea of making it circular. Cuts down on overall track length, and makes maintenance easier.

You still need a mountain to run up at the end, though, and a big body of water just beyond that (for safety reasons). Accelerate at 1 G and all you need is seven miles of track to hit escape velocity. With that kind of stress, even most flabby Americans could get to space.

Woo hoo!

**ender502**

The rail gun is neat and all.. .but I am more interested in the "PRAYER DEVICE".... Heard of it? It's a computer that recites prayer at a quantum level. You can get billions of prayers per second! The final result would be to get god to smite our enemies. Think the old "Foot of Gork." No fuss, no muss, no nasty insurgents or casualties!

ender502

**beefHeart**

Build your own... Well, not exactly but still fun.

http://wiki.4hv.org/index.php/Coil_gun

gotta love physics!!

**Lorek**

Coil gun != rail gun

-=Edit=- This is a clarification, not trying to contradict you.

**skkipper**

we design coil guns at work to form aluminum slug rivets for aircraft assembly. we also use a coil to magnetize aluminum for a brief time to pull dents

**Asmodai**

Posted By Iorek on 02/15/2007 5:57 AM
I'm glad that we have this pretense to develop railgun technology; they're incredibly useful on spacecraft (and not just as weapons, either; think of them as a high-speed mail system).

That's an interesting new take on the linear accelerator launch platform; I like the idea of making it circular. Cuts down on overall track length, and makes maintenance easier.

You still need a mountain to run up at the end, though, and a big body of water just beyond that (for safety reasons). Accelerate at 1 G and all you need is seven miles of track to hit escape velocity. With that kind of stress, even most flabby Americans could get to space.

Woo hoo!

Victoria, BC spaceport here we come!

**pnweerar**

Posted By ender502 on 02/15/2007 8:08 AM

The rail gun is neat and all.. .but I am more interested in the "PRAYER DEVICE".... Heard of it? It's a computer that recites prayer at a quantum level. You can get billions of prayers per second! The final result would be to get god to smite our enemies. Think the old "Foot of Gork." No fuss, no muss, no nasty insurgents or casualties!

ender502

Sounds like a Mechanicus - Ecclesiarchy joint project. Then you stick them in Nalwood boxes and give it Eisenhorn to throw at daemons.

Bah, if you're serious about space, you take the elevator my friends.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator

**Lorek**

I like my trips to space to take minutes, not days.

It's a good idea whose time isn't here yet; we need better materials and a better meteor defense first.

**pnweerar**

Actually, the space elevator's tech is a lot closer than we think, it's more a question of getting funding for +$10 billion infrastructure project that is a little too revolutionary (revolutionary is hard to sell, evolutionary - much easier).

To agree with you in a roundabout way, we'll probably bulid one once everything needed is abundantly available -- and then EVERYONE will go do it.

Asteroid defence is nice too.