US's Ultra-Advanced Railgun Weapon Is Making All Others Obsolete

As dangerous threats to America's safety increase with each passing day, so does the need to combat any potential enemy.

For almost 20 years, a leading defense enterprise has been developing a prototype of a gunpowder-less weapon: the General Atomics electromagnetic railgun.

In a joint effort with the United States Navy, the device features electromagnetic launchers that use electric power instead of chemical propellants. That way, the Blitzer could fire projectiles at speeds never before seen in conventional weapons.

Despite its uncertain future and the potential involvement of the United States Army, these revolutionary railguns might just change the way America fights…

[snoig]

I worked on this stuff for ARDEC back in the 80's. So it's been around a lot longer than the video mentions. The concept is over 100 years old and they were doing research in Australia back in the 60's. The big problem now, as it was back then is rail wear. When you are sending a mega-amp of current across a sliding contact, things tend to melt. I hear that they have made progress in the last 40 years but going from single digit number of shots to tens of shots before rails needed to be replaced.

As far as power requirements go, a modern Ford-class reactor will provide more than enough power. The Navy's latest ship concept is that everything runs on electricity (catapults, radar, jamming, communications, props) so you build a big reactor and switch power to where ever it it needed. A railgun fits in well with that design concept. The Ford A1B reactor can generate about 125 megawatts of electricity plus another 260 MW to the propeller shafts. A 30 megajoule gun would require around 9 kilowatt-hours for one shot. So even if you used 1/10 of the reactor electrical output you could still shoot about 1300 shots per hour. Even with other inefficiencies, I think 100 shots per hour would be reasonable with reactors we are using right now.

And as far as the Chinese actually fielding a railgun? I'll believe that when I actually see it work for more than a few shots in an hour.

[cuteraptor]

Superconducting research is essential for this technology to be miniaturised. The currents involved in the conductors are gigantic !

[donchaput]

Faster projectile speeds would also make intercept courses easier to target in the case of an incoming ICBM. It would be a significant upgrade to defense.

[apeshitcrazyman]

Dude! The commentary and narration is spot on!! Soo much better than your other channel. Clear concise informative and interesting, spoken at a pace one can follow. Great work, very interesting!

[castlekingside]

I've been following this program. They have made progress. The prototype was the size of an Amazon warehouse basically. They needed a massive structure for power and electrical.

[RKAZ]

You didn’t mention if the barrel wear issue the navy discovered has been addressed or overcome.
Another great story! Keep them coming!

[nunyabeeswax]

I'm not scientist, most of the energy used to send a projectile a hyper speed come in the form of heat. Keeping the barrel cool for repetitive shots is engineering wonder. Also, imagine how sophisticated the capacitors are to discharge and charge . Multiple banks???? IDK. I was bummed when I read the DOD was moving away from this technology. Glad to see it back

[blueindigo]

Amazing to me is that the term "General Atomics" sounds like something a Science Fiction author would create for a novel .

[CuriousPersonUSA]

Thanks for the update! I am glad the railgun concept didn't just get abandoned. I hope the US navy will become more successful in making technology leaps! It feels like we are falling behind!

[paladro]

more range, more firepower, always welcome in this arena.

[MRsolidcolor]

navy : naw
Army : ill take it
marines: army will give it to us, after they buy newer ones

[jacksonteller]

They were scrapped on several vessels as they can't fire often enough to be useful in battle. They were planning to get these on the next generation of destroyers and to replace the useless 155 mm on the Zumwalt class. But they are now placing hypersonic cruise missiles in place of these in the place of the turrets.

[thomascarmichael]

It may take a while to iron out the problems but if they can use magnetics to shoot aircraft off the pointy end of the boat, they’ll find a way to build an operational rail gun that is cost effective. Lasers were a Buck Rodgers dream back in the 1930’s, but they are fielding them on naval ships now. That’s speed of light tech that we’re now talking about. Besides that General Atomics projectile is probably a whole lot cheaper than a standard missile or a harpoon middle. Keep the faith shipmate’s. They’ll figure it out!!!

[USA]

Absolutely insane that we have stuff like this in real life

[itsgue]

I remember reading about this in high school .... can’t imagine how much it’s progressed in 10 years

[JetSetSixDeuce]

That last beat hit harder than a barrage of rail gun rounds

[RNemy]

When the fireball that comes out of the barrel is larger than the one from a standard powder charge cannon, you know this power is just unbelievable. I certainly hope we field these systems soon.

[Umbra]

Makes you wonder if the US Space Forces is also looking at this. The space treaty does not outlaw kinetic weapons.

[JamesCrouchX]

I read somewhere that the power had to be reduced when testing a system on a tank. It was so fast it just passed through with the only damage being the holes. Windows. No boom.

[jeroboam]

The fact that after 20 years of R&D most of your images are synthetic prooves it's far from being ready.