• tal
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    2 days ago

    I wonder how they plan to overcome the problems the last attempts had

    I’m kind of skeptical too, but if you’re referring to the Navy’s railgun project, I can believe that maybe they don’t need the kind of ranges and velocities there.

    kagis

    No, sounds comparable; about Mach 6 for each. Maybe a little more for the Navy project. The Navy project was apparently “EMRG”:

    https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R44175/87

    In EMRG, “magnetic fields created by high electrical currents accelerate a sliding metal conductor, or armature, between two rails to launch projectiles at [speeds of] 4,500 mph to 5,600 mph,”42 or roughly Mach 5.9 to Mach 7.4 at sea level.

    https://thedefensepost.com/2024/07/17/us-army-air-defense/

    The BAE gun demonstrated firing hypervelocity rounds at around 4,500 miles (7,242 kilometers) per hour, or around six times the speed of sound.