Re: Rail guns (was: US SOCOM desires...)

[Roger Burton West <roger@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, Jan 27, 2002 at 16:27:39 -0600, Robert J. Hansen wrote:
>Coincidentally, I happened to work in a Defense Department-funded
>research lab that was looking into properties of HTS (High-Temperature
>Superconductor).  Rail guns were not ever on the wish list.  The problem
>is really simple: Newton's Law of Equal and Opposite Reactions.

<snip>

I think the advantages of a railgun are:

- you can deliver the same energy by using a smaller mass that travels
faster - so less space per shot for ammunition storage (all relative to
a conventional weapon of the same type);

- 2x the velocity, 1/4x the mass gives the same energy but half the
momentum, which is also relevant to recoil;

- some systems (e.g. tanks) can be built to absorb more recoil, and
those can get bigger weapons than are practicable with chemical fuel;

- once the design matures, you can select the amount of damage you want
to do on the fly.

Roger