Video: Navy Railgun Sets a New Record

by Nancy Atkinson on December 16, 2010

*Gulp* If you haven’t seen this video yet, its worth a look. On December 10, 2010, the Office of Naval Research Electromagnetic Railgun fired a world-record setting 33 megajoule shot, breaking the previous record of 32 MJ. Railguns accelerate a conductive projectile along a pair of metal rails, and are being researched as weapons. The projectiles do not contain explosives, but with extremely high velocities can do quite a bit of damage. “Velocitas Eradico” indeed. (Speed destroys). Of course the other potential use for a railgun would be to launch payloads off Earth or the Moon. Make sure you watch the high-speed portion of the camera following the projectile along its flight. And you might flinch (I know I did!) in the portion where the projectile basically comes right at you.

Tagged as: Military, Railgun, Technology

  • Dark Gnat

    I love Rail Guns. They are great for tank sniping. :)

    Also, this would be a great way to get Christmas presents there on time.

  • Jon Hanford

    Pretty awesome to see this gun in action. And look at all those capacitor banks used to power it (this is to eventually be used aboard ships, with a more compact power source I guess). There is also a longer video that shows more interior shots, different test projectiles, and an earlier test shot with a slender projectile: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bW0UWQh5Lk&feature=related

    • Jon Hanford

      Doh! No capacitors in Nancy’s video, lotta capacitors in my link. They fill that facility!

    • Dark Gnat

      Word has it they will get their juice from the nuclear reactors.

  • Uncle Fred

    Disgusting. Horrible. More toys to kill and maim people.

    If that was a model space plane then great. Looked like a bomb to me.

    Shameful.

    UF

    • Dark Gnat

      “Peace Through Superior Firepower”

  • http://home.comcast.net/~jacobsdale/Myfishingbuddy.pps Aqua

    Try not to think of this as a military weapon, instead, think of it as a way to launch refined elements from the moon such as O2, Fe, Ti, He3 etc…

    • Vanamonde

      Yes! Mach 8 will get you off the Moon and into almost any orbit you want. And no air resistance, no plasma eating energy and Mach 8 is the wrong term, 2.38 km/s is a better way to put it.

  • Emilio

    I am surprised that they didn’t use super conducting magnet.

    • GekkoNZ

      A railgun does not need magnets. Just a capacitor bank and two rails.

    • Vanamonde

      Hard to keep them at the right temperature with the stresses involved. And besides…..see GekkoNZ

  • tripleclean

    GO NAVY!

  • yonnie

    shades of “Starman Jones” (1953″) or “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” (1960). Robert Heinlein.

    This is old-tech, but think of all the practical applications besides weapons this technology could be used for: Hi-speed transport of goods and people here on Earth, space station, Moon Colony, Mars.

    • Vanamonde

      Old tech????? Mature science maybe, but a great and new engineering problem using the newest state of the art with the voltages and materials needed. And to make it fit in a ship with all of the power generation and shaping tech.

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