# Ooooh! The Navy Has a New Toy! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 7, 2008, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooooh-the-navy-has-a-new-toy/436627 "2008-02-07T02:37:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2008, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooooh-the-navy-has-a-new-toy/436627/1 "2008-02-07T02:37:11Z")
[Navy test fires electromagnetic rail gun.](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,327205,00.html#) > [@](#): > > A futuristic weapon getting a trial run by the Navy demonstrated its destructive power at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren. > > In the demonstration Thursday, engineers fired the electromagnetic railgun at what they said was a record power level: 10 megajoules. > > The previous railgun power-use record was about 9 megajoules of muzzle energy. (Yes, there’s links to video on the page! 🆒 ) ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2008, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooooh-the-navy-has-a-new-toy/436627/2 "2008-02-07T02:51:10Z")
Why, in the video, is their what appears to be muzzle blast? As if it were powered by a chemical explosive charge? 5-inch guns aren’t of much use in surface warfare nowadays. Anti-ship missiles will kill a modern warship just as well as a railgun round, and from hundreds of miles away. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2008, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooooh-the-navy-has-a-new-toy/436627/3 "2008-02-07T03:00:46Z")
[QUOTE=ExTank] 5-inch guns aren’t of much use in surface warfare nowadays. Anti-ship missiles will kill a modern warship just as well as a railgun round, and from hundreds of miles away. [/QUOTE] Not so much for ASuW, true. But, remember the Littoral Combat Ships, which seem to be the main guiding principal for the upcoming DD21 “Zumwalt” class ships are heavily focused on providing naval support for land combat. If going to electromagetic rail cannon reduce the storage needed per shot, that may well translate to an increase in endurance for the ship while providing fire support. One of the many minor reasons that the Nuke Cruisers were decommed in the 1990s was because they could carry, at most, 8 Tomahawk missiles, compared to several times that number for VLS ships. (Not the major reason, which was based on operational costs - maintenance and manpower, but one of the ancillary ones, I suspect.) I haven’t seen the article, yet - FOX News is being finicky for me, but I suspect that these are being tested for use on the CG(X) flights of ships, rather than the DD21s. So we’re talking about something that might be being deployed in 2020, or later. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2008, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooooh-the-navy-has-a-new-toy/436627/4 "2008-02-07T04:47:08Z")
[QUOTE=OtakuLoki] Not so much for ASuW, true. But, remember the Littoral Combat Ships, which seem to be the main guiding principal for the upcoming DD21 “Zumwalt” class ships are heavily focused on providing naval support for land combat. … I haven’t seen the article, yet - FOX News is being finicky for me, but I suspect that these are being tested for use on the CG(X) flights of ships, rather than the DD21s. So we’re talking about something that might be being deployed in 2020, or later. [/QUOTE] Nitpicks: LCS has nothing to do with supporting land combat, as it is supposed to specialize in mine warfare, submarine warfare, and surface warfare in coastal areas. And DD21 is now known as DDG 1000. And the rail gun is being developed for the land attack missions of DDG 1000, as CG (X) is going to be focused on missions like missile defense and stuff that would occur much further from shore, and it probably won’t even have a gun. ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2008, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooooh-the-navy-has-a-new-toy/436627/5 "2008-02-07T05:49:13Z")
Hmm. Equivalent to 7.3 million foot-pounds of muzzle energy. I take it thats a lot? I couldn’t really make out what was going on the video. [I looked up some numbers and it seems a 5 incher can do 5.8 million foot pounds. The sixteen inchers are good for 262. Yikes!] [Oh, and OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!] ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2008, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooooh-the-navy-has-a-new-toy/436627/6 "2008-02-07T05:51:37Z")
I wanna know what’s up with the muzzle blast/fireball too. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2008, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooooh-the-navy-has-a-new-toy/436627/7 "2008-02-07T06:47:24Z")
The blast is probably vaporized railgun. One reason why the railgun design for an electromagnetic gun ( there are others ) hasn’t caught on faster, is that parts of it’s internal workings vaporize every time it fires. The surfaces of the rails , specifically. ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooooh-the-navy-has-a-new-toy/436627/8 "2008-02-08T03:09:56Z")
[QUOTE=Der Trihs] The blast is probably vaporized railgun. One reason why the railgun design for an electromagnetic gun ( there are others ) hasn’t caught on faster, is that parts of it’s internal workings vaporize every time it fires. The surfaces of the rails , specifically. [/QUOTE] Any idea what the surface of the rails are made of? Might save on ammo cost, especially since they’re talking about firing _slugs_. Then again, the surfaces of the rails might be even more expensive. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooooh-the-navy-has-a-new-toy/436627/9 "2008-02-08T03:19:42Z")
From one of the articles I read, the main problem is that the barrel only lasts for 4 shots. They’ve got a lot of work to do before this becomes reasonable technology. I’d also prefer that they keep the occasional good old fashioned gun around, because A\> Not everything needs a missile or railgun fired at it, and B\> It’d be really nice to NOT be completely useless after an EMP hit. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooooh-the-navy-has-a-new-toy/436627/10 "2008-02-08T04:46:49Z")
They included a little report on this on G4 televison Attack of the Show. The babe who read the news said that “if the Navy ever kills me, I want them to use something as cool as this to do it.” ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ooooh-the-navy-has-a-new-toy/436627/11 "2008-02-08T05:13:46Z")
[QUOTE=Der Trihs] The blast is probably vaporized railgun. One reason why the railgun design for an electromagnetic gun ( there are others ) hasn’t caught on faster, is that parts of it’s internal workings vaporize every time it fires. The surfaces of the rails , specifically. [/QUOTE] :smack: I was confusing my railguns and Gauss guns. Question withdrawn on grounds of blatant stupidity.