How to spend half a billion dollars wasted? Build Railgun Better Than Quake

Of course, the idea and concept of such weapons appeared long ago – they say, somewhere in the middle of the nineteenth century. The first step in the creation of a facility using an electromagnetic field to disperse a projectile was conducted by physicist Christian Birkeland. Later, in 1901, he described the method of acceleration of an object using an electromagnetic field and, according to some sources, would be able to release a projectile of 500 grams with an initial velocity of 50 m / s from the badembled prototype.

A more realistic concept of "electric pistol" was invented by the Frenchman André Louis-Octave Fauchon-Viluple, who had filed several patents in the 20s of the last century. The idea was not the object of development due to technical limitations, and the army had enough power of then existing weapons, which could be mbadively produced and at a lower cost. By its effectiveness, it was suitable for everyone.

By the way, the concept of rail gun combines various technologies and their combinations: it is impossible to state unequivocally that there is only one way to launch a projectile – seven basic types are mentioned.

At one point, it seemed possible to additionally use solid and liquid fuel types to obtain a stronger impulse. Towards the end of the Second World War in Germany, they suggested using plasma as a component to accelerate the projectile.

During the experiments, German engineers managed to launch a 10-gram aluminum cylinder with an initial velocity of 1210 m / s.

At the same time, the concept of the Gauss canon appeared, but it was not possible to build it. As it turned out after the war (when scientists conducted more in-depth research), launching shells would require an incredible amount of energy at that time. Since then, little has changed.

In the 1960s, scientists were able to design firearms for scientific purposes – the benefit was the most powerful unipolar generator. There was a mbadive, energy-consuming experience. The army has nothing left.

According to some data difficult to verify, Soviet scientists could have accelerated a projectile of 1.3 gram at a speed of 4900 m / s. It is possible that this is an error similar to that of 2016. The media then reported successful tests of the Russian rail gun: the actual speed of 10 800 km / h for some reason has been transformed into 11 km / s and has since been reproduced by some publications.

The active development of firearms for the military began in the mid-2000s. Before that, there were a number of projects – in the 80s and 90s – however, the physicists engineers could not advance significantly. The case went from a dead center only after 2011, but the progress made is now considered controversial and insufficient. Why controversial? Because the typical problems of weapons were not solved.

As for the term "railgun", the author called the Soviet physicist Lev Artsimovich.

If it's pretty simple, there are two "rails" with a positive and negative charge in the railgun, the energy is provided by an external power source. Mounted between the projectile guide rails closes the circuit. An electromagnetic field is created, through which the disk accelerates. The plasma behind it can serve as an additional accelerator. Its use as an appropriate "projectile" is not excluded, but inefficient – it "dissolves quickly".

The launch of a light, high-speed projectile requires relatively little energy, but miniature bullets of several millimeters or centimeters in diameter are of interest to scientists and not the military. Perhaps when manual rail guns are invented, such "bullets" will be needed, but this is not yet the case.

With heavier loads, possessing the necessary for the destruction of the protection of the mbad, problems begin, but because of the accumulated kinetic energy, the "weight" can cause serious damage (or, judging by by demonstrations, to form a set of net holes). Now they are talking about 15 to 25 MW for the installation. That's a lot – more than a midsize warship can provide.

The optimistic supporters of the new type of army weapons try to show the most impressive figures possible: speed – more than 10 waves maximum, range – almost 360 km. But that's part of the category of absolute fiction. Although the results are much more modest – up to 7 max. The data on the range are very different, but the "design" does not hold.

Railgun allows you to launch a projectile with a low weight at a speed higher than 2500 m / s. This limitation is relevant for existing artillery, due to its structural features, as well as the properties of the materials subjected to heavy load on each shot.

Realists say that in theory, the effective range of guns can reach 200 km, and the speed of a projectile in 7 strikes will make defense much more difficult. The crew serving the train is far behind the front line. Highest precision If the target is still.

When placed on the ship, the general safety of the ship increases as there is no need to carry large stocks of explosives. Ammunition takes up less space and weighs less than traditional ammunition, and may also be cheaper.

The US military is hopeful that rail guns could be used as part of air defense systems – probably, all existing crewed aircraft have a lower speed than the iron bar made from "weapons of the future". However, the same is true for unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as for missiles of various types, but at a relatively short distance (the question of accuracy remains very distant).

In the first place – extremely high energy consumption. Yes, the Zumwalt clbad destroyer has a reserve of 58 MW, half of which will be occupied by the gun, but there are few ships of this type (3 instead of 32) and they are unlikely to be equipped with weapons.

In addition, the existing facilities have significant dimensions. The (hypothetical) range of the shot, though impressive, is however the trajectory of the draft is not corrected – no control system can be placed on the projectile. For this reason, a shot beyond the horizon may prove to be inaccurate because you will have to take into account more factors, including terrain, shooting in a straight line will not work. It is also impossible to "suspend" an explosive on a disk to increase its destructive power.

The fact that shells are just "pennies" is only a prediction, as long as it is expensive, about $ 50,000 per shot. Not as expensive as launching a million-dollar missile, but comparable to the launch of the M712 Copperhead guided missile – the same money, but does not release new equipment. Although this series of advantages and disadvantages can extend almost to infinity: the same Copperhead is slower and flies nearby, weighs a lot …

But the main disadvantage of rail weapons lies in the fact that existing prototypes can only succeed a few shots before the barrel breaks.

The largest investments in next-generation weapons, as you can guess, are led by the United States. At least officially. It is not so long ago that China, which has already had notable success, is involved in the dossier (but it is not certain). Russia has also carried out several tests.

As mentioned above, almost every step to achieve the goal is accompanied by a "but" counterweight. And here is the evidence.

In 2014, US Admiral Jonathan Greenert said promisingly that naval forces had the intention to start using electromagnetic guns in 2016, and that the first ship equipped with a gun to rail should be the USNS Millinocket. He actually had the installation, but only on rendering engines, and also as a very expensive mannequin. The military did not know how to provide energy and cooling to a futuristic weapon. And the place to accommodate the whole system was not found.

In 2017, General Atomics proudly announced the creation of a new type of "battery" impulse, a system capable of releasing a tremendous amount of energy in a very short time. What is required by the military to ensure the rate of fire of the rail guns The problem is partly solved, but the appearance of firearms with ammunition "endless" is still not expected before 2025.

By 2018, China had already announced the creation of a powerful rail gun. Specifically, the source of energy for him. The local press is limited to scientists and the success of the test. That's all: no technical details – there was no information even on the number of shots.

Do not sleep in Turkey:

Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on developing railway guns. In the United States, only the "technical problems" overcome in the past year have sent $ 45.8 million. Apparently, this was not to happen. Gradually, the military is disappointed by this initiative, which is earmarking funds for the development of other types of advanced weapons – laser and guided projectiles called Hyper Velocity Projectile (HPV), which can be used not only in firing systems existing, but also in firearms (we do not know how). . In addition, there are more secrets around guns than revelations – this happens when something is wrong, but you have to inflate your cheeks. In short: "the weapon of the future" remains the weapon of the future.

It is possible that what has been conceived as a railgun is gradually transformed into something else – less expensive, easier to implement, but perhaps not possessing the fantastic capabilities described. But achievable. Meanwhile, a player armed with a gun is more scary than experimental facilities on American ships and test areas.

Sources list: TheDrive, Extremetech, ABC, ONR, Naval Technology, The Independent, Techcrunch, Realcleardefense, National Interest, Wired.

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