Why is the rail gun an interesting weapon?

[cjl]

The Navy has implemented electric catapults on its next generation aircraft carriers and most likely will retrofit all existing steam catapults as time goes on.

Retrofitting wouldn't really be possible - current gen aircraft carriers don't make nearly enough electricity to run an all electric catapult system, and it would involve a pretty extensive redesign to make it possible. I believe the plan is just to replace the current carriers with the new ones (Ford class), rather than trying to retrofit the Nimitz class carriers with a ton of new tech.

 

[brenan]

As we speak (or read) the US navy is trialing their latest ship borne laser system that operates
a 100Kw laser. I'm curious because I was under the impression that an effective weapon of this type
needs to be at least 2 orders of magnitude more powerful. Does anyone know what sort of
distances they are likely to be able to effectively use this against anything worth the cost of an
entire ship (The publicity claim is that this is now a viable device albeit an early development version)
Assuming good weather I'm guessing they'd need to hold precise targetting over a fairly reasonable period?
(far too long for example to destroy a carrier buster)

 

[d3mm]

I know how electronic war is today and how full scale naval warfare today means long range standoff weapons so you can survive just long enough to fire back once before you are dead. Most of the 1980's war games had the pacific fleet lasting about 1 day during a full scale attack.

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/a-cold-war-conundrum/source.htm#HEADING1-06

Answers allegations of being out of date by linking 30 year old document. ;-)

Some of the principles are the same but the technology has so far advanced since those days. 30 year old computers? Yes, some of the same platforms are in service (F-18 jet) but they have been upgraded so many times, they no longer resemble their original ancestors.

 

[nsaspook]

Answers allegations of being out of date by linking 30 year old document. ;-)

Some of the principles are the same but the technology has so far advanced since those days. 30 year old computers? Yes, some of the same platforms are in service (F-18 jet) but they have been upgraded so many times, they no longer resemble their original ancestors.

The opponents systems have also advanced 30 years, so the only thing that has changed is how fast we can wipe each other out. In one day of all-out non-nuclear naval warfare with a Chinese or Russian Navy we would still be throwing rocks and spears at each other from the burned out hull of a stealth ship because while our electronics are very good, active Electronic Protection (EP) systems will always have effective countermeasures when the system has be almost perfect to stop a debilitating blow from a single large weapon from a incoming cluster of large dumb weapons that are cheap to make. Passive countermeasures (armor, redundancy) are not sexy but are effective in a real shooting war after the first salvo is fired.

 

[Alexi-dono]

Would it be possible/practical to start the projectile with explosives (maybe a shaped charge), and then continue the acceleration with the "rails"?

 

[Drakkith]

Would it be possible/practical to start the projectile with explosives (maybe a shaped charge), and then continue the acceleration with the "rails"?

I wouldn't have believed it, but yes. From here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railgun

In some hypervelocity research projects, projectiles are "pre-injected" into railguns, to avoid the need for a standing start, and both two-stage light-gas guns and conventional powder guns have been used for this role.

 

[Alexi-dono]

I wonder if multiple explosions could be used, and if they could be done in a way to give spin to the projectile (rifling). Maybe if they get crazy enough they could combine railguns and nuclear blasts. Example: have a long vertical/semi-vertical tunnel going underground, then have the nuke at the very bottom, and the railgun built into the wall... Though the projectile would have to have a very high heat resistance, as for shape; use a conical shaped charge design. If you really want to go the extra mile; find a way to create a concentrated beam of radiation, that would heat the atmosphere inline with the ballistic flight path for temporary dispersion. (create a partial vacuum for the projectile to fly in).

~just a thought