Naval Electromagnetic Railgun Development

[drkrn]

where does such high power comes from.is nuclear reactor a possibility?
i think they need changes in ship design as well

 

[H.A.]

where does such high power comes from.is nuclear reactor a possibility?
i think they need changes in ship design as well

I doubt that Nuclear reactions are being used....it is more to do with electro magnets...similar to moving an elevated train along a track only difference is that they are getting more juice out of the whole set up.

 

[drkrn]

I doubt that Nuclear reactions are being used....it is more to do with electro magnets...similar to moving an elevated train along a track only difference is that they are getting more juice out of the whole set up.

no,i think i didn't ask the question properly
to push & expel a heavy projectile at enormous speeds they need a different power source.conventional power sources might not help.at the sea the ship is alone in the middle of water without any other power supply.so where does the power supply for these beasts come from?

 

[H.A.]

no,i think i didn't ask the question properly
to push & expel a heavy projectile at enormous speeds they need a different power source.conventional power sources might not help.at the sea the ship is alone in the middle of water without any other power supply.so where does the power supply for these beasts come from?

Integrated Power System (IPS)

The Integrated Power System (IPS) is, in some ways, similar to the old turbo-electric drive, the addition of PMMs (Permanent Magnetic Motors) and integration of all electrical power systems gives ten times the power available on current destroyers. It also reduces the ship's thermal and sound signature. The IPS has added to weight growth in the Zumwalt-class destroyer as noted by the GAO.[5]

Check the IPS heading in the below link.

Zumwalt class destroyer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

or, Check this link for detailed discussion:

Integrated electric propulsion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[asianobserve]

General Atomics
Rail gun prototype

 

[Kunal Biswas]

Rail Gun Project is closed in US..

 

[asianobserve]

Rail Gun Project is closed in US..

A victim of US budget cuts? Too bad. But the article cited by H.A. is dated November 6, 2012...?

http://www.militaryaerospace.com/ar...aseii-advances.html?cmpid=EnlMAENovember72012

 

[Kunal Biswas]

Power Down: Senate Zaps Navy's Superlaser, Rail Gun

The Senate just drove a stake into the Navy's high-tech heart. The directed energy and electromagnetic weapons intended to protect the surface ships of the future? Terminated.

The Free Electron Laser and the Electromagnetic Rail Gun are experimental weapons that the Navy hope will one day burn missiles careening toward their ships out of the sky and fire bullets at hypersonic speeds at targets thousands of miles away. Neither will be ready until at least the 2020s, the Navy estimates. But the Senate Armed Services Committee has a better delivery date in mind: never.

The committee approved its version of the fiscal 2012 defense authorization bill on Friday, priced to move at $664.5 billion, some $6.4 billion less than what the Obama administration wanted. The bill "terminates" the Free Electron Laser and the rail gun, a summary released by the committee gleefully reports.

"The determination was that the Free Electron Laser has the highest technical risk in terms of being ultimately able to field on a ship, so we thought the Navy could better concentrate on other laser programs," explains Rick DeBobes, the chief of staff for the committee. "With the Electromagnetic Rail Gun, the committee felt the technical challenges to developing and fielding the weapon would be daunting, particularly [related to] the power required and the barrel of the gun having limited life."

Both weapons are apples in the eye of the Office of Naval Research, the mad scientists of the Navy. "We're fast approaching the limits of our ability to hit maneuvering pieces of metal in the sky with other maneuvering pieces of metal," its leader, Rear Adm. Nevin Carr, told me in February. The answer, he thinks, is hypersonics and directed energy weapons, hastening "the end of the dominance of the missile," Adm. Gary Roughead, the top officer in the Navy, told me last month. With China developing carrier-killer missiles and smaller missiles proliferating widely, both weapons would allow the Navy to blunt the missile threat and attack adversaries from vast distances.

And both have recently experienced technical milestones that made researchers squeal with glee.

In December, the Navy corralled reporters to Dahlgren, Virginia, to watch a rail gun the size of a schoolbus fire a 23-pound bullet using no moving parts — just 33 megajoules of energy, a world record. (A prototype of a ship-ready rail gun is pictured above.)

And this winter, the Free Electron Laser, the most powerful and sophisticated laser there is, boasted two big advances within a month. In January, its 14-kilowatt prototype passed tests that injected enough energy into it to get it up to a megawatt's worth of death ray — a "remarkable breakthrough," nine months ahead of schedule, the Office of Naval Research crowed. The next month, its testers at the Jefferson Lab in Newport News added even more power. Researchers think it could be far more than a weapon: it might act as a super-sensor, and Yale scientists use it to hunt for cosmic energy.

Shipboard power is the question mark surrounding both weapons. The laser and the rail gun require diverting power from a ship's generators in order to fire. The Navy's waved that away, saying that its onboard generators — especially the superpowerful ones in development — can handle the megawattage necessary, and the Free Electron Laser's guts are shaped like a racetrack to "recycle" some of the energy injected into it. But both plans rely on the power efficiency of ships that aren't built yet.

Neither comes cheap, either. The Navy's spent some $211 million since 2005 developing the rail gun. Its milestones with the Free Electron Laser — in development in some form since the '90s — led it to ask Congress for $60 million in annual directed-energy research funds, most of which go to the superlaser. Needless to say, a Senate panel facing a huge budget crunch was unsympathetic.

The Office of Naval Research didn't respond by press time. The process of passing a defense budget making it through no fewer than four committees and two floor votes, so it's not like these programs cease to exist. But unless the Navy makes a big push for its futuristic weapons, both of them will die on the drawing board.

Photo: Spencer Ackerman

Power Down: Senate Zaps Navy's Superlaser, Rail Gun | Danger Room | Wired.com

 

[asianobserve]

What can we do? Really, too bad. I'll not be surprised if China will announce its own rail gun soon...

 

[H.A.]

@Kunal Sir the link posted by you is of 2011 whereas the link i have posted is of November 2012 also found another link of October 2012, here it is

General Atomics Railgun Technology Helping to Revolutionize Defense Capabilities | Maritime News | Maritime Executive Magazine

So i doubt if the program is stopped, infact as pointed out in the articles Phase 2 has been initiated....

 

[Kunal Biswas]

I will change the title to ' Naval Electromagnetic Railgun Development ' ...

In this way all the important inputs regarding Navy railgun will be put here in one single thread..

 

[Kunal Biswas]

The EMRG will provide Joint Forces a unique capability for volume fire at long range, enabling rapid engagement of a wide variety of targets including stationary structures, such as buildings and bridges, and relocatable targets, such as surface-to-air missiles for Suppression of Enemy Air Defense (SEAD) (Pifer et al. 2007). Current weapon systems, such as tactical aircraft (TACAIR) or cruise missiles, have comparable or greater ranges than a 64-MJ EMRG projectile at significantly greater costs, but cannot provide an equivalent volume of fires. Other Naval guns can provide volume of fires, but at significantly shorter ranges. The EMRG provides a truly unique capability for volume fire at long range and an ability to engage targets in a high-threat environment. The use of the EMRG enables rapid engagement of a wide range of target sets, while freeing up TACAIR and cruise missiles to concentrate on high-value targets that are not likely to be engaged effectively with first-generation EMRG weapon systems.

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The high-altitude flight profile and steep attack angle of EMRG projectiles provide greater flexibility to attack targets effectively in mountainous terrain by using projectiles that are practically invulnerable to enemy counterattack. It is impractical for the enemy to engage EMRG projectiles as they descend into the target area. The projectile's small size and extremely high velocity present a very difficult target and an unfavorable geometry to enemy defensive systems. In addition, the large number of EMRG projectiles will likely overcome any enemy defensive system. Future EMRG system development could enable an unprecedented capability to place rounds in a pre-determined pattern to dramatically increase target lethality over a wide range of potential threats.

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Railgun Logistics Advantanges

The EMRG enables lean maneuver forces to move quickly to their objectives unburdened by the logistical tail associated with organic artillery. It will also dramatically reduce the quantity and associated cost of fuel required for aircraft and support vehicles ashore. Additionally, transport aircraft may be allowed to focus more on moving maneuver forces around the battlefield and less on transporting and resupplying their field artillery, particularly early in a conflict.

The cost of fuel and energy efficiency is taking on an increasing level of importance in the current fiscally burdened and resource-constrained environment. The importance will continue to grow during the "post-peak"oil production period that coincides with the projected 64-MJ EMRG initial operational capability (IOC) in the 2020 to 2025 timeframe. Post-peak is the era after global production of petroleum products has peaked and begins an irreversible decline. It is vital that the Department of Defense (DoD) begins to develop systems and build platforms that can put steel on target efficiently in the post-peak period. A brief discussion of the fully burdened cost of fuel (FBCF) and some impact on war fighters is provided.

The delivered cost for fuel has the following price tags:

* $4 per gallon for ships on the open ocean
* $42 per gallon for in-flight refueling
* Several hundred dollars per gallon for combat forces and FOBs deep within a battlespace (DSBTF 2008).

An EMRG launch is extremely fuel efficient. Even at a full tactical energy level of 64 MJ, an EMRG projectile requires the equivalent of only three gallons of fuel per launch. This represents a dramatic reduction as compared to the fuel requirements of TACAIR. In light of the FBCF, the use of an EMRG, where mission conditions allow, can result in a dramatic reduction in the total cost required to neutralize a significant number of mission critical target sets.

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Benefits of Non-explosive Munitions

The EMRG will utilize a pure kinetic energy round without the use of any propellants or explosives. By eliminating explosive elements from the logistics tail, the EMRG will provide the following to the future warship:

* Ability to carry nearly 10 times the current number of on-board rounds within the same space as current magazines (i.e., from thousands to tens of thousands of rounds, depending on the platform being considered)

* Ability to store projectiles in a greater number of shipboard spaces, thus extending time on station and enabling at-sea replenishment of projectiles via vertical replenishment (VERTREP) or connected replenishment (CONREP)

* Reduction of the EMRG platform vulnerability by eliminating sympathetic detonations in the event of attack Improvement of the total volume of fires that can be provided from the sea

* Precision strike with minimal collateral damage

* Reduction in weight (typically required for magazine armor), fire fighting systems, thermal insulation, and life-cycle cost

* Significant flexibility provided to the US Navy warship designer, not possible with conventional explosive munitions

 

[Tolaha]

What can we do? Really, too bad. I'll not be surprised if China will announce its own rail gun soon...

What can "we" do? Maybe you can convince the Malaysian government to share some of its defence budget with the US!

If whatever is being said about Chinese espionage is true, then its good news that the US project stopped before it could cross all the hurdles. Now, other than flicking up ideas, Chinese will have to actually work on issues that nobody else has solved before!

 

[asianobserve]

What can "we" do? Maybe you can convince the Malaysian government to share some of its defence budget with the US!

If whatever is being said about Chinese espionage is true, then its good news that the US project stopped before it could cross all the hurdles. Now, other than flicking up ideas, Chinese will have to actually work on issues that nobody else has solved before!

We already did our part. India should do more.

 

[Damian]

I know this is not directly connected to railguns for navy vessels, but Americans have interesting ideas for such weapon systems applications.

TÅ‚umacz Google

I needed to put it trough google translator, so translation seems to be rough but should be enough. It is interesting development.

 

[H.A.]

Taking a snippet from the above link.

The idea is based on the use of the range and speed of the company have already tested working demonstrator electromagnetic Blitzer. It is used to fire - at the height of more than 100 miles above the Earth or far enough in the fight against cruise missiles (moving just above the ground) - super-fast bullet that just before advancing the objectives, the explosion creates a cloud of debris TE. Anything that will have to go through such an artificial cloud of extremely hard metal particles, it should be destroyed, because of the great speed of the meeting.

The idea sounds like putting a Claymore mine on the back of a missile and face it towards the oncoming missile....

 

[Kunal Biswas]

High Power Railgun Research at the Naval Research Laboratory


Published on Jul 16, 2012 by USNRL

The Naval Research Laboratory's 5,000 square foot Materials Testing Facility (MTF) houses a "scaled-for-laboratory," 6-meter Electromagnetic Railgun.A railgun consists of a power supply that drives current through a pair of conductors or rails to accelerate a projectile to high velocity.

MTF demonstrated, October 31, 2011, the one-thousandth successful firing of its Electromagnetic Railgun, reaching a materials testing milestone in the weapon's technological development and future implementation aboard U.S. Navy warships.

Many of the 1000 shots have been designed to test different barrel designs and to quantify damage generated during high power launch. The innovations and understanding generated by NRL's science and technology program have been fed directly into the Office of Naval Research's Electromagnetic Railgun program and transferred to full-scale tests conducted at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren, Va.

Navy's Electromagnetic Railgun Reaches Testing Milestone
http://www.nrl.navy.mil/media/news-r...agnetic-railgu...

NRL Railgun Group Receives Award of Merit for Group Achievement
http://www.nrl.navy.mil/media/news-r...oup-receives-a...

For more NRL videos, visit NRL Videos - U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.

Video credit: NRL Technical Information Services

 

[Kunal Biswas]

Navy Evaluating Second Electromagnetic Railgun Prototype

Navy Evaluating Second Electromagnetic Railgun Innovative Naval Prototype
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Oct. 9, 2012
By the Office of Naval Research

ARLINGTON, Va.—The Office of Naval Research's (ONR) Electromagnetic (EM) Railgun program is evaluating the second of two industry railgun prototype launchers at a facility in Dahlgren, Va., officials announced today.

The EM Railgun launcher is a long-range naval weapon that fires projectiles using electricity instead of traditional gun propellants such as explosive chemicals. Magnetic fields created by high electrical currents accelerate a sliding metal conductor, or armature, between two rails to launch projectiles at 4,500-5,600 mph.

The Navy is pursuing development of the launcher system through two industry teams—General Atomics and BAE Systems—to reduce risk in the program and to foster innovation in next-generation shipboard weapons.

"It's exciting to see how two different teams are both delivering very relevant but unique launcher solutions," said Roger Ellis, EM Railgun program manager.

General Atomics has delivered its prototype launcher to Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Dahlgren Division, where engineers have engaged in a series of tests similar to the evaluations conducted on the prototype demonstrator made by BAE Systems that arrived on Jan. 30.

"We're evaluating and learning from both prototype designs, and we'll be folding what we learn from the evaluations into the next phase of the program," said Ellis.

Both General Atomics and BAE Systems are commencing work on concept designs for a next-generation prototype EM Railgun capable of increased firing rates. This includes continued development of automatic projectile loading systems and thermal management systems for the barrel. Officials plan to evaluate the concept designs at the end of the year.

The EM Railgun is an Innovative Naval Prototype being managed by ONR's Naval Air Warfare and Weapons Department. The two prototype demonstrators incorporate advanced composites and improved barrel life performance resulting from development efforts on laboratory railgun systems located at the Naval Research Laboratory and NSWC-Dahlgren Division.

The EM Railgun laboratory demonstrator based at NSWC-Dahlgren Division fired a world record setting 33-megajoule shot in December 2010. One megajoule of energy is equivalent to a 1-ton car traveling at 100 miles per hour.


News: Navy Evaluating Second Electromagnetic Railgun Innovative Naval Prototype - Office of Naval Research

 

[Kunal Biswas]

GA talking about Blitzer and what it brings to the battle:

 

[asianobserve]

Navy Wants Railguns for Missile Defense
Mike Hoffman
January 18, 2013

The electromagnetic rail gun could offer the Navy both additional range for land strikes as well as added capabilities in ballistic and cruise missile defense. In a perfect world, the Navy would like to invest in both particular technologies.

However, in this era of sequestration and shrinking budgets, the Navy likely has to choose. U.S. Navy Under Secretary Robert Work said he'd lean towards investing more heavily on ballistic and cruise missile defense versus land strike.

"We are over capitalized in strike, land strike. We've got a lot of land strike. I would put all of my money into the electromagnetic rail gun for ballistic and cruise missile defense," Work said Thursday at the Surface Naval Association conference in Crystal City, Va.

The Navy has spent the past eight years testing railguns, most notably rolling out the first weaponized railgun in January 2012.

Navy leaders will have to make further investment decisions as the technology continues to mature.

However, Work said the Navy should delay the decision as they continue to decide how railguns might fit into their fleet designs.

The under secretary doesn't expect the railgun to be used in surface or submarine naval battles. He expects the railgun to fall in line with the Navy's priority to provide power projection from the sea.

"Naval to naval exchanges just aren't our thing right now. What it is is about projecting power in theaters where these land based anti-access aerial denial networks with guided weapons that can be thrown at range in salvos is a very, very difficult problem and the Navy is very focused on," Work said.

Missile defense is a priority throughout the Pentagon as the rest of the world's militaries advance their guided missile technology.

"We're in a time of enormous technological flux and our enemies are now at a point where they have parity in guided missiles. I don't think they are with us as far as their networks but they are doing everything they can," Work said.

Navy leaders have read the research into missile defense and Work said it's left the admirals excited. Right now, he said it makes the most sense in terms of the new defense strategy and selling it to Congress.

"There is an awful lot of exciting analysis that says you can do ballistic missile defense and you can do cruise missile defense with it," Work said.

He insisted that the Navy must continue to invest in directed energy weapons research to include electromagnetic railguns.

"Woe to us if we lose "¦ the race to directed energy weapons and electromagnetic railguns," Work said. "That's not going to be a future that we want."


Read more: http://defensetech.org/2013/01/18/navy-railguns-future-is-in-missile-defense/#ixzz2Ik7HeKoL
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