railgun

How the Navy's super railgun works (animation)

If you want to know how the U.S. Navy's futuristic electromagnetic railgun works, you could hop on over to the information page on the Office of Naval Research's Web site. Or you could watch a monotone Taiwanese animation.

If you're not familiar with the railgun, it's a favorite Navy project that is intended to be able to launch a 5-inch projectile more than 100 miles without the use of traditional explosives. Using a complex system that forces the projectile out of a ship-bound gun at more than 4,500 miles, the Navy hopes to be … Read more

Navy tests railgun that can shoot up to 100 miles

The U.S. Navy says it has tested one of two prototypes of its futuristic electromagnetic railgun, a weapon that could fire a 5-inch projectile up to 100 miles, yet which requires no explosives to fire.

The Office of Naval Research is evaluating competing railguns--one from BAE Systems, and one from General Atomics. Yesterday, ONR announced it has completed a successful test of BAE's model, and the Navy is expected to test-fire General Atomics' offering sometime in April.

"The firing at Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division...kicks off a two-month-ling test series by [ONR] to evaluate the … Read more

Futuristic Navy railgun with 220-mile range closer to reality

Imagine a Naval gun so powerful it can shoot a 5-inch projectile up to 220 miles, yet requires no explosives to fire.

That's the Navy's futuristic electromagnetic railgun, a project that could be deployed on the service's ships by 2025, and which is now a little bit closer to reality with the signing of a deal with Raytheon for the development of what's known as the pulse-forming network.

Rather than using explosives to fire projectiles as do conventional naval weapons, the railgun depends on an electromagnetic system that uses the ship's onboard electrical power grid … Read more

Navy's Mach 7 gun can kill from 100 miles away

The world can never have enough guns--at least not if they embody exciting new ways to destroy people and things that look wonderful in movies. So here is a weapon that seems to be the sheer personification of gun fun.

It is being tested by the U.S. Navy, and it seems to have some pulsating technical features. It doesn't rely on an explosive charge to propel a bullet toward a bad guy. Instead, Fox News informs me, it expels bullets along parallel rails. The bullets, thanks to the cheery push of an electromagnetic current, spring out at speeds … Read more