# Bring back the battleships?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bring-back-the-battleships/485860>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [February 14, 2009, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bring-back-the-battleships/485860 "2009-02-14T20:42:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 287

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**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2012, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bring-back-the-battleships/485860/287 "2012-04-29T19:57:38Z")

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> [@Mosier](#):
>
> This means that until railgun energy requirements are lowered quite a bit, making a smaller gun that can fit on a cruiser-sized ship viable, we probably won’t see railguns on navy ships.

Actually, we covered that in a [previous thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=643690).

> [@Electromagnetic railgun: why all the smoke and fire?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electromagnetic-railgun-why-all-the-smoke-and-fire/614353/23):
>
> 32 MJ is only 9 kWh.

> [@Chimera](#):
>
> Looks like the Arleigh Burke runs four 20mw gas turbines, so assuming they had one doing nothing but full time capacitor charging for the rail guns, that would be…
> 
> A mere 1.6 seconds each.
> 
> Therefore not an issue of any kind at all.

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