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#3940543 - 04/17/14 07:53 AM Re: Navy’s New Railgun Can Hurl a Shell Over 5,000 MPH [Re: Kontakt5]  
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Originally Posted By: Kontakt5
Basically that's what modern reactive armor attempts- uses explosive against the incoming penetrator to destabilize it or break it up, so whatever part of the penetrator is left is approaching at a bad angle or is no longer in stable flight once it reaches the main armor. Because the penetrator is moving at such a high speed to begin with, spinning it, imparting yaw forces, or snapping it can seriously destabilize and effectively reduce the amount of hitting power it has left by the time it reaches the main armor array. Whether that would apply to ships and this sort of system would be interesting.




I was talking about systems that engage an incoming munition before it even hits the vehicle. Currently systems like Arena and Trophy are effective only against relatively slow RPGs and ATGMs but the next generation is being designed to be effective against heavy KE penetrators as well.

The actual kill mechanism would probably have to much different to deal with a railgun slug but it suggests that the electronic reaction time is probably close to being "there" already.

I'm no physicist, but I'd imagine that if you got metal out in front of a railgun slug at sufficient distance it would induce major derp...

Anyway, if a railgun slugs are found to merely poke narrow holes through ships and other relatively soft targets, it'd be a simple matter to design a frangible round akin to some of the newer KE antiaircraft cannon rounds.

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#3940727 - 04/17/14 03:56 PM Re: Navy’s New Railgun Can Hurl a Shell Over 5,000 MPH [Re: Linebacker]  
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Not proven in practical combat situations against a first rate opponent- sure, they have shown under ideal test setups to knock down missiles, but one of the liabilities is that a hard kill system could spray nearby friendly troops as well. Furthermore, in a busy combat environment, such a system again could conceivably be overwhelmed by projectiles flying everywhere. In design, they are meant to be one layer of a tiered defense, i.e., in addition to the armor package plus electro-optical jammers and dazzlers, not designed to work on their own per se.


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#3941055 - 04/18/14 08:05 AM Re: Navy’s New Railgun Can Hurl a Shell Over 5,000 MPH [Re: Linebacker]  
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Nobody said they were intended to be a standalone solution, but given the rate of improvement in antiarmor munitions, life for an armored vehicle will be awfully short without one in the near future.

Just as life would be pretty short for a variety of potential railgun targets if they lack some means of defense.

#3941166 - 04/18/14 02:51 PM Re: Navy’s New Railgun Can Hurl a Shell Over 5,000 MPH [Re: Linebacker]  
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Hence the emphasis on stealth...if they don't know you're there, or at least EXACTLY where you are, they can't hit you.



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#3941211 - 04/18/14 04:07 PM Re: Navy’s New Railgun Can Hurl a Shell Over 5,000 MPH [Re: Crane Hunter]  
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Originally Posted By: Crane Hunter
Nobody said they were intended to be a standalone solution, but given the rate of improvement in antiarmor munitions, life for an armored vehicle will be awfully short without one in the near future.

Just as life would be pretty short for a variety of potential railgun targets if they lack some means of defense.


The technology isn't thought to be mature or sufficient enough that many armies bother with upgrading their tank fleets- so far a system like that might do well under select conditions, particularly against one or two insurgents with an RPG or an ATGM. But against a conventional opponent or in high intensity conflict, it's difficult to test a situation like that, it would essentially be an untested system going into battle, which is why there is still more attention focused elsewhere improving the survivability of armored vehicles. The Russians have also studied ways to defeat the sensors of these kinds of defense systems by getting them to fire prematurely, so of course there are responses to every sort of technology that is introduced.

Likewise, I would imagine that even if railgun technology advances sufficiently so they could fire multiple times without damaging the rail itself, there would still need to be a compliment of surface to surface missiles, air defense weapons, and so on. It would run the danger of putting all your eggs in one basket otherwise.


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#3941282 - 04/18/14 06:05 PM Re: Navy’s New Railgun Can Hurl a Shell Over 5,000 MPH [Re: Linebacker]  
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Arnold showed us infantry has had railgun rifles since the late 90s, what's the big deal??

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116213/?ref_=nv_sr_2




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The anteater is wearing the bagel because he's a reindeer princess. -- my 4 yr old daughter
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