Navy develops 8-Megajoule railgun, Nukem bows down

The mere mention of the word brings back visions of the original first-person-shooters to grace our now-antiquated machines, and now the US Navy is getting real personal with a realized version of the pixelated railgun we all love and adore. Presumably ripped straight from the (admittedly lacking) storyline of Quake, an 8-Megajoule railgun has been officially created, fired, and deemed worthy of flanking our naval ships, which should strike fear in the hearts of anyone wishing us harm. The gun was showcased this week at the Naval Surface Warfare Center at Dahlgren, Virginia, and utilizes massive quantities of electricity rather than gunpowder to propel "nonexplosive projectiles at incredible speeds." The weapon is powerful enough to equal the damage inflicted by a Tomahawk cruise missile, and the device's project director compared the impact to hitting a solid object "going 380 miles-per-hour in a Ford Taurus." Moreover, the railgun touts a 200 to 250 nautical-mile range, compared to the 15 nautical-mile range that current five-inch guns sport now. Interestingly, the weapon should "only" cost around $1,000 per shot once loaded onboard, which is chump change compared to the cool million that vanishes each time a cruise missile is deployed, and if everything goes as planned, we'll be seeing a 32-Megajoule prototype in June, with a 64-Megajoule rendition adorning our ships by 2020.

[Via Slashdot]

[jm9843 @ Jan 18th 2007 2:22PM]

Yeah, because those people are routinely found out at sea.

[Garry @ Jan 18th 2007 2:33PM]

@Bombaclott:

Ah, that's right. I forgot that the US is targeting innocent civilians in its airstrikes and ground raids.

Here's a REALLY hard concept to wrap your head around: terrorists, or "freedom fighters" as you apparently will call them, actually DO target innocent civilians.

Regardless of how you view the war, our military, the Islamic radicals, or the general Muslim population, is it really so hard to make this distinction?

[SporkRocker @ Jan 18th 2007 1:23PM]

Is it possible to see some live action of this gun being fired?

[Scorpious @ Jan 18th 2007 1:28PM]

Dude, I want one of those on my Warthog! I'd never lose in CTF again!

[Pedro @ Jan 18th 2007 2:00PM]

Well play Halo 2 then, you'll love the Gauss Warthog!

A Gauss Rifle works on similar principles to a rail driver, but you don't need to replace the rails after every shot liek you do with a railgun.

[csnoke @ Jan 18th 2007 1:36PM]

As soon as these hit the street in 1-megajoule form, I will be the first to put a (rail)gun-rack in the back of my 3 series.

[JD @ Jan 18th 2007 1:39PM]

I'd rather see a Ford Taurus hit a solid object at 380mph

[Cisco @ Jan 18th 2007 1:46PM]

Amazing!

[DoctaDJones @ Jan 18th 2007 1:51PM]

You know with current enlistment numbers down. They should really think about putting this stuff on the recruitment commercials.
Have a smooth transition shot from Quake to a real life rail gun annihilating a ship. Throw the usual Godsmack in the background. And change the slogan to:
"Navy, Accelerate Your Nonexplosive Projectiles."

[Dave Bergschneider @ Jan 18th 2007 1:54PM]

Another example of how our military forces have way to much time and money at their disposal. I think the motto is to eradicate world hunger simply by killing it off with crazy weapons like this. Don't get me wrong, I still want one to wire upto a motion sensor and tag the people stealing my moring newspaper....lol

[Saxon @ Jan 18th 2007 1:54PM]

The U.S. Navy.

AWW YEEAHHH.

[nigel @ Jan 18th 2007 1:54PM]

but does it have a touch screen?

[cixeslyD @ Jan 18th 2007 1:55PM]

So this railgun will be out before Duke Nukem Forever?

[Nabil @ Jan 18th 2007 1:59PM]

Can we get the miniaturized version that Arnold had in Eraser

[Nabil @ Jan 18th 2007 2:01PM]

this is the one Arnold had in Eraser

http://www.joker.si/images/clank/1062_510.jpg

[RWF @ Jan 18th 2007 2:09PM]

Is this article really filed under "Handhelds" ??

[Murc @ Jan 18th 2007 9:23PM]

This isn't designed for ship to ship conflicts...Its designed to level a terrorist hideout 250 miles inland. and since 75% of the earth is covered by water...it makes much more sense to put this weapon on a ship then a land vehicle.



Nothing beats the US military!

[sharky @ Jan 18th 2007 2:24PM]

That thing is no iphone. It looks retro.... last century.

[Brian @ Jan 18th 2007 2:41PM]

I thought the iPhone already had one of these.

[Rivet @ Jan 18th 2007 3:35PM]

Dude, that's not a real photo of it. I'm sure the thing is still classified as all hell. Plus a rail gun with a 200 mile range would be huge, think the size of a railcar huge.

[Brian @ Jan 18th 2007 2:26PM]

It never ceases to amaze me, America is in the business of making war and making war cheaper and faster. I still say the money would have been better spent building a WMD detector (one that works)

[cpl Hall @ Jan 18th 2007 2:38PM]

Try educating yourself before making comments on "Troop" strength..

No. 008-07 IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 04, 2007
Media Contact: [phone]/697-5132
Public/Industry(703) 428-0711

National Guard (in Federal Status) and Reserve Mobilized as of January, 3, 2007

This week, the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard announced a increase, while the Navy number remained the same. The net collective result is 2,962 more reservists mobilized than last week.

At any given time, services may mobilize some units and individuals while demobilizing others, making it possible for these figures to either increase or decrease. Total number currently on active duty in support of the partial mobilization for the Army National Guard and Army Reserve is 76,089; Navy Reserve, 4,921; Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve, 5,326; Marine Corps Reserve, 5,574; and the Coast Guard Reserve, 358. This brings the total National Guard and Reserve personnel, who have been mobilized, to 92,268, including both units and individual augmentees.

A cumulative roster of all National Guard and Reserve personnel, who are currently mobilized, can be found at http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jan2007/d20070103ngr.pdf .

[JRA219psu @ Jan 18th 2007 2:39PM]

sick!

[anonymous @ Jan 18th 2007 2:49PM]

your right, it already does have a 'picture' of it.

[LongshotX @ Jan 18th 2007 2:42PM]

I understand America has a lot of problems: rising cost of energy, education, health care, all that mess but never do I want the military to stop developing military weapons as such. They need to be over top, and ambitious. These projects reqire lots of money, and if the price is the security that I can sleep well at night well shit I'm going to pay it. Complain all you want but America must constantly stay on top of our defense. Too many people hate us, and our way of life. Our very civilization requires constant vigil and protection against those who seek to destroy us. Look at Israel. They have nukes, an elite air force, navy, and ground forces as well as special ops. And look at the nations that surround them. If they didn't develop stuff similar to this device all the Middle Eastern Jews would be wiped off the face of the planet. But one day, many nations will come up against Israel and on the plains of Megiddo one by one they will fall. And no I'm not a Jew or some white evangelist Christian. I'm a Methodist. :-)

[haggisns @ Jan 18th 2007 2:42PM]

Question:

I thought the damage to a ship was due to kinetic damage.With the curvature of the earth is'nt this just a LOS weapon. If the ship is out of LOS can it still be used to lob the projectile at long distances.

And if the projectile goes 380 miles an hour and you shoot at a target 250 miles away, it would take 45 minutes to reach the target, completely unguided, in the middle of the ocean. You could'nt possible expect to hit a ship with it at 250 miles even if you new the ships speed and course, there are so many variables to calculate it'd be impossible.

Did I just go off on a tangent?

[cpt @ Jan 18th 2007 2:52PM]

http://0rz.tw/3f2k8
According to the website, the projectile actually leaves the atmosphere and re-enters with satellite guidance to hit the target.
Another thing worth mentioning is its 10+ rounds/min speed. It's essentially a missile machine gun!

[Vincen @ Jan 18th 2007 3:12PM]

@ haggisns

Probably they were referring to the momentum of the object using terms we know.

A taurus (say 1000kg) traveling 260 mpg (say 115 m/s) would have a p of 115000 kg•m/s.

A little ball o metal (bullet) weighing *maybe* 5grams. WOuld travel much faster

[Garry @ Jan 18th 2007 2:57PM]

@hagginsns:

The implication wasn't that the projectile travels at 380 miles an hour, but rather that its inertia (at impact) would be equivalent to a Ford Taurus traveling 380 mph.

I'm assuming that the Taurus would weigh somewhere between 1.5 and 2 tons. Unless the projectile weighs this much (which is very unlikely), it must be traveling faster in proportion. It's likely that it is traveling much, much faster.

[GeneMack @ Jan 18th 2007 2:58PM]

The projectiles go much faster than 380-miles an hour. As you point out, they are comparing "kinetic energies". So the 3.8 kilogram projectile hits with the force of a Ford Tauraus going 380-mph. A Tauraus weighs around 3500 lbs.

I'm too lazy to do the math, but simple algebra will get you the actual speed these projectiles fire at.

And LOS means nothing in this case. You just compensate the firing coordinates.

One nice weapon - to bad I have been out of the Navy for 11 years, would have loved to see a live fire testing of this.

[Mike @ Jan 18th 2007 4:05PM]

The projectile goes a speed aproaching ten thousand miles an hour for a 250 mile range, the 'Taurus' example was an energy equivilent, not a speed. I doubt an object travelling 380mph could make a trajectory much further than a mile.

[ob1 @ Apr 14th 2007 1:57PM]

From the website:
"Projectiles fired from an electromagnetic railgun will travel up to 290 miles in less than six minutes, exiting the atmosphere before hurling into their target at a velocity of 5,000 feet per second. The force of the impact will obliterate targets without an explosive aid."
That's about 2900 mph.

[cpl Hall @ Jan 18th 2007 2:42PM]

Try to educate yourself before making inacurate comments...DoctaDJones
NEWS RELEASES from the United States Department of Defense

No. 008-07 IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 04, 2007
Media Contact: [phone]/697-5132
Public/Industry(703) 428-0711

National Guard (in Federal Status) and Reserve Mobilized as of January, 3, 2007

This week, the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard announced a increase, while the Navy number remained the same. The net collective result is 2,962 more reservists mobilized than last week.

At any given time, services may mobilize some units and individuals while demobilizing others, making it possible for these figures to either increase or decrease. Total number currently on active duty in support of the partial mobilization for the Army National Guard and Army Reserve is 76,089; Navy Reserve, 4,921; Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve, 5,326; Marine Corps Reserve, 5,574; and the Coast Guard Reserve, 358. This brings the total National Guard and Reserve personnel, who have been mobilized, to 92,268, including both units and individual augmentees.

A cumulative roster of all National Guard and Reserve personnel, who are currently mobilized, can be found at http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jan2007/d20070103ngr.pdf .

[Pavan @ Jan 18th 2007 2:43PM]

No, but just because all terrorists today are Muslim doesnt mean all Muslims are terrorists. The US are supposed to be the good guys, and invading another sovereign country to find WMDs that actually dont exist do nothing.

Afganistan had my full support. Iraq was shit. Can you imagine what world reaction would be like if any other country did what the US did - invade a country and change the reason for the invasion after the first reason turned out to be a dud?

[Kalroy @ Jan 18th 2007 11:27PM]

Last count I saw, last summer, was over 500 individual chemical munitions found in Iraq. Not to mention hundreds of gallons of anti-cholenesterate nerve agent (similar stuff to sarin and VX) but because it wasn't the exact same chemical composition as our stuff was classified as highly concentrated insecticide. Funny part is that it still sets off the detectors and is just as deadly as our stuff.

So know what you're talking about before making false claims.

Kalroy

[Kalroy @ Jan 18th 2007 11:27PM]

You should've paid more attention. The WMDs were about the fourth reason George Bush gave in his state of the union speech. Fact is that we were still at war with Iraq after they violated the cease fire agreement a few months after we pulled our forces out of the country.

Kalroy

[engadget.mlc @ Jan 18th 2007 3:11PM]

Your numbers would put it at roughly 7770 mph, but the actual projectile is 40 lbs.

[You Peon @ Jan 18th 2007 3:14PM]

The projectile doesn't actually travel at 380mph... it was an analogy. The force of impact is as if a ford taurus were traveling at 380 and smashed into something...the projectile is going to be smaller than a car obviously, and it will be traveling at nearly a mile per second at the time of impact. Around 5000 feet in a mile (5280 to be exact) but this thing is going 8200fps in the initial stage. Low ball figure is that this thing is traveling at about an average speed of 4000 miles per hour. So your looking at hitting that target 250 miles away in well under 4 minutes.
& I WANNA SEE THIS IN ACTION!

[R2P2 @ Jan 18th 2007 3:21PM]

"And if the projectile goes 380 miles an hour and you shoot at a target 250 miles away, it would take 45 minutes to reach the target, completely unguided, in the middle of the ocean."

The projectile isn't going 380 mph. The article says the projectile is "a supersonic bullet", and the speed of sound is 770 mph. The "Taurus at 380 mph" bit was just saying that the projectile has the same kinetic energy as that car, but the projectile weighs a lot less than a Taurus so it'd have to be going faster. Kinetic energy is 0.5 * mass * velocity * velocity, I think.

[Matt B @ Jan 18th 2007 3:41PM]

"It shoots through schools..."

[Joseph @ Jan 18th 2007 3:42PM]

now it would be nice if all of americas enemies lined up in a single file line... ;-) ;-)

http://www.thesimexchange.com/

[Miguel @ Jan 18th 2007 3:48PM]

Awesome. Now when will Ng Industries get around to developing REASON?

[Anon @ Jan 18th 2007 3:55PM]

Did Duke Nukem even have a rail gun?

In the article someone posted, it said that the projectile trails at Mach 7 (4900 mph). So, it would take less than 3 minutes to hit a target 200 miles away.

[Anon @ Jan 18th 2007 3:57PM]

*trails=travels

[Jonathan Allen @ Jan 18th 2007 3:56PM]

You all know that they DID in fact find WMD's in Iraq no matter how many times the media tries to tell us they did not.

Saddam Hussein was just put to death for using chemical weapons.

Iran has nuclear reactors already putting out weapons grade plutonium.

You guys need to get your facts straight.


A weapon like this would allow us to obtain our objectives with less loss of U.S. soldier's lives so that little b&#^&#es like you can stop whining.

[enzo @ Jan 18th 2007 6:11PM]

Saddam Hussein is obviously still alive, duh.

[Britboyj27 @ Jan 18th 2007 4:42PM]

That's awesome and all, but where are the pictures and when can I buy one from Wal-Mart?

[dLeet @ Jan 18th 2007 4:57PM]

Not sure if this was already covered in comments but I read this article yesterday and facts are slightly different from what is documented here. All the stats (Ford Taurus going 380 mph) and 200-250 nautical mile range is for the 64 megajoule version that will be put on ships. The 8 megajoule version is only a test and will not be officially deployed. For the military having too much time and money on their hands, the company that got this contract received it for 10 million bucks -- chump change compared to the rest of the military budget. Also, this railgun apparently comes from the Ronald Regan era with the codename "Star Wars" anti aircraft missile defense program that produced little else.

[spikeon @ Jan 19th 2007 12:09AM]

dood,

i think you got your facts crossed

the "starwars" refrence in the recent news was the chinese missle fired at one of their own 4ft by 4ft obsolete satalites... they hit it.

anyways, go on with your day

[macona @ Jan 18th 2007 5:04PM]

The popsci article say 5000 feet per second (FPS) 5000 fps = 3409mph. That target 250 miles out would be vaporized at less than four and a half minutes after firing.

INSTANT GRATIFICATION!