US test EM gun in Scotland
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AMERICANS TO TEST SUPERGUN IN SCOTLAND 7500mph shell can kill five miles away FURY OVER PLAN TO FIRE SHELLS AT MoD BASE
Jamie Macaskill Exclusive
AMERICA is to test a new secret supergun at a defence base in Scotland.
The electromagnetic gun (EM gun) will be tested at an experimental weapons range in Dumfriesshire.
The US Department of Defense believes the range at Dundrennan, near Kirkcudbright, is the only suitable location to test the new supergun.
But the move has sparked fury among concerned locals.
South of Scotland MSP Alasdair Morgan, an outspoken critic of the weapons range, yesterday slammed the US military's plans.
He said: "It is not as if America has a shortage of areas in its own country where they could test their latest weapons. I find it bizarre they need to do it here."
The MoD has faced complaints over its use of the range to fire thousands of shells coated with depleted uranium into the Solway Firth. There are fears the tests could be damaging the health of locals and the environment.
The EM gun is seen as a halfway measure before the US can perfect laser weapons.
Powerful magnetised coils create an electric pulse which can fire a shell at 7500mph - around two miles a second - and kill a target more than five miles away.
It's more than double the speed of shells fired by British and American tanks in the Gulf - regarded as the world's most effective - whose shells travel at around 3000mph.
The Dundrennan supergun tests emerged during a briefing in the US by America's top military scientist Mike Andrews. He told delegates at a military conference the EM gun would begin trials in Scotland.
He said: "One of the things we've been lacking is full-scale testing.
"You don't know how effective it will be until you load it up at full power.
"We'll be doing some full-scale testing in probably the only place in the world you can do that - Kirkcudbright."
The new superweapon relies on its incredible power for destruction.
Because of the tungsten shell's speed - it moves five times quicker than Concorde - it can tear through armour and buildings, even though it is only about a foot long and as narrow as a broom stick. Because of its small size, scientists believe tanks will be able to carry three times as many shells.
Three months ago, a senior scientist with the MoD revealed British defence chiefs were also interested in the EM gun.
David Hague, of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, said in a paper: "The MoD wants to see an EM weapon system that we can use on the battlefield in 20 years.
"If we don't look into the use of EM launch technology we are in danger of becoming complacent.
"It's a high-risk technology but with a high pay-off if done correctly."
Details of the supergun are top secret although it is thought the US military favours a design by American arms giant Lockheed Martin. Under the George Bush presidency, funding for new super weapons was increased and Lockheed has been given research funding until 2007.
Development started under Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative - nicknamed Star Wars - in which the US military and scientists proposed using EM guns on satellites to shoot down enemy missiles.
Although shelved by Bill Clinton, research continued and the Dundrennan tests will mark the final phase of the weapon's development.
The US military hope to have the gun ready to use within five years.
A spokesman for the US Marines added: "It doesn't look like we're going to get enough destructive power with a laser beam. Will we have that in 2030? Probably."
http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/news/newsfeeds/page.cfm?objectid=13196042&method=full&siteid=86024
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i didn't know railguns existed?
sheesh!
the pure kinetic energy of the projectile will cause a huge explosion! -
No, you have to be travelling quite a lot faster in order to release that kind of energy. 7500 mph is virtually a standstill compared to the kinds of speeds we are talking about if you want explosive nuclear like effects from sheer KE. More of in the ballpark of 25000 mph, the speed meteors slam into the earth. At higher speeds, the component atoms of the projectile can be broken down, causing nuclear distruption effects and correcponding release of energy.Originally posted by the Bear:i didn't know railguns existed?
sheesh!
the pure kinetic energy of the projectile will cause a huge explosion! -
yah, i know.. the EM guns are the first steps to railguns... nothing else can accelerate things to 25,000 mph..
the world suddenly got scarierOriginally posted by SingaporeTyrannosaur:No, you have to be travelling quite a lot faster in order to release that kind of energy. 7500 mph is virtually a standstill compared to the kinds of speeds we are talking about if you want explosive nuclear like effects from sheer KE. More of in the ballpark of 25000 mph, the speed meteors slam into the earth. At higher speeds, the component atoms of the projectile can be broken down, causing nuclear distruption effects and correcponding release of energy. -
oops.. double post... deleted
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wah kaoz eh... best... this type of shit actually exists? my God lorhz... but 1 problem, how they provide energy for the gun to work? what platform will they mount it on? a tank? plane? or infantry weapon? wah... imagine portable nuclear rifles... what's next? by the time they developed weapons that shoot projectiles at 25000mph, we woill be experiencing apocalypse ready...
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woah.. RED ALERT 2!!!
EM PULSE CANNON READY... *BOOM!*
veri soon we will be going into terminator age... -
and they were looking for WMD in iraq?..
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Railguns, coilguns and other EM guns are actually very common. The principle behind their construction has been known for decades, and many universities have EM guns for research purposes. You can even build one at home. Search on the net for people who have built their own railguns and coilguns. There are a lot of people who have.
They are not some kind of superweapon, unlike in movies and computer games. They are just a way to get a projectile to move faster than a chemical explosion can. You still need to supply the energy, which will need to be in the form of electricity rather than chemical (explosive) energy. There are already EM guns with greater power than the one they are about to test.
The main problems preventing the use of EM weaponry are the size of the power source and cooling system for the gun and how to prevent the rails or coils from wearing out or warping from the electromagnetic force. Otherwise, the gun will have too low a rate of fire to be useful. If they managed to overcome these problems, that would be a big step forward toward directed energy weapons of all kinds.
If I were to make a guess, this gun will probably be used in a ground installation or ship for anti-ballistic missile (ABM) defense, powered by a nuclear reactor. With that kind of velocity and kinetic energy, you could stop incoming missiles if you have a good targetting system. Either that, or they will be used in some "son of battleship" naval platform to blow up ships and ground installations the "old fashioned" way, with naval gunfire. -
if they mounted it on a tank, wouldn't the tank blow itself up from the blowback (if any)?
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I don't think there's much recoil from EM guns, unlike conventional weapons which release all the propulsive power in one moment, creating a gigantic recoil spike, EM guns accelerate a projectile constantly over a longer distance in the tube, spreading out the recoil force over a much larger period of time.
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from what i understand of electro-magnetic projectiles, there should be hardly any recoil. disadvantage is that u need long barrel, and alot of electrical power...
but I was just wondering, the scientists wanna mount it on a tank. and the only place they can test it in the world is some place in scotland. so in battle, a tank fires a shot, how far will it be before the projectile stops flying? does it mean that if a tank misses. .. the projectiles will end up more than 6 or 7 km away? and even if the projectile hits the intended target, what will it do besides punching an extremely neat and precise hole in the target?
even if u shoot it at a person, i doubt the person will die unless the projectile goes thru a vital organ and causes internal bleeding, cos the hole in the body will be extremely clean and neat.
and because the tanks are now able to engage targets 5 miles away, doe sit mean that battlefields will be large in size? i doubt that such projectiles can be employed effectively in urban fighting because there is always the chance that vehicles on ur side are behind the enemy vehicle. because of the high speed of the projectile, it will enter and exit the enemy vehicle and puncha hole through ur own as well.. . . -
Hmm, you obviously do not understand terminal ballastics very well. Yes, the projectile will punch a hole through armour, but in the process, the forces involved in the impact will cause the projectile to break up after which it will enter the target along with pieces of spalled armour to bounce around shredding crew and splattering ribbons of gore all about, play havoc with the interior equipment, and probably set off fuel or ammo...
Chi-Ba-Boom. The projectile will still behave like an APFSDS round, fired from a conventional or EM gun.
The only way a projectile will overpenetrate without breaking up is unless it was used against a soft-skinned target, in which a projectile like a sabot dart will pass through causing little damage. But then again, such ammo was intended for hard targets anyway, namely MBTs.
Anyway, there's nothing to say why you can't launch HEAT or other kinds of ammo from an EM gun as well. Basically, the higher velocities will make targeting a snap. And since it is a direct fire weapon anyway, don't have to worry about overpenetration, unless u got a bad mix of friendlies and baddies around. In which case, your AP ammor better do what it is supposed to do and break up inside the armour rather then blasting out the other side.
Overpenetration has been documented before, in the Gulf war where the Abrams APFSDS could blast through two T-72s and destroy them both. Make sure you array your forces properly.
Ps. If you fire an Abrams 120mm APFSDS round on a ballastic arc, it would actually go about 20 kilometers out!