[raydan]

rickc rickc:

I thought that gunships (not as large as battleships of course) were supposed to be making a comeback due to the magnetic rail gun. They do not need to carry gun powder bags, and the projectiles do not have a warhead. No more need to worry about the fatal shot to the magazine. Smaller faster ships are harder to hit and you do not sacrifice as much when the ship does go down.

Just a few sailors, no sweat.


NOTE: I know, that's not the message you were trying to get across.

[llama66]

Also Rail Guns require a ridiculous amount of energy to operate. Outside of a Carrier, only the Zumwalts have power plants that are capable of generating the required energy.

[peck420]

llama66 llama66:

Also Rail Guns require a ridiculous amount of energy to operate. Outside of a Carrier, only the Zumwalts have power plants that are capable of generating the required energy.

I am not 100% sure, but I thought LM had come up with a truck bed sized solution to that?

[llama66]

I've read that this is an image of how close the Chinese destroyer got. Insane. Violates almost every rule of the sea I can remember.

[llama66]

peck420 peck420:

llama66 llama66:

Also Rail Guns require a ridiculous amount of energy to operate. Outside of a Carrier, only the Zumwalts have power plants that are capable of generating the required energy.

I am not 100% sure, but I thought LM had come up with a truck bed sized solution to that?

I still think they require a couple of Megawatts of power to fire. Could be wrong.

[BartSimpson]

llama66 llama66:

I've read that this is an image of how close the Chinese destroyer got. Insane. Violates almost every rule of the sea I can remember.

They want a war.

[peck420]

llama66 llama66:

I still think they require a couple of Megawatts of power to fire. Could be wrong.

Depends on how far along they are?

I think the current claim is that they are at 320 MW's from a 7m x 18m footprint, and the end goal is 100MW from a 2.1m x 3m footprint.

Bart would know more about that end of it, but if they are anywhere close, they are getting where they need to be for a very compact vessel throwing a lot of power output.

[BartSimpson]

peck420 peck420:

llama66 llama66:

I still think they require a couple of Megawatts of power to fire. Could be wrong.

Depends on how far along they are?

I think the current claim is that they are at 320 MW's from a 7m x 18m footprint, and the end goal is 100MW from a 2.1m x 3m footprint.

Bart would know more about that end of it, but if they are anywhere close, they are getting where they need to be for a very compact vessel throwing a lot of power output.

It isn't just the generating capacity that's an issue it's the friggin' capacitor you have to have for the big railguns.

The ship that sports a big enough railgun is going to be the naval equivalent of the A-10 Warthog...it'll be a narrow purpose ship built around a gun and the gun's support systems.

The Navy is determined to put these things to sea so maybe it will happen. But more likely for the near future is that land-based railguns will be used for killing satellites in low-earth orbit and smaller railguns will be deployed on ships for anti-missile and anti-aircraft defense.

[PublicAnimalNo9]

peck420 peck420:

llama66 llama66:

I still think they require a couple of Megawatts of power to fire. Could be wrong.

Depends on how far along they are?

I think the current claim is that they are at 320 MW's from a 7m x 18m footprint, and the end goal is 100MW from a 2.1m x 3m footprint.

Bart would know more about that end of it, but if they are anywhere close, they are getting where they need to be for a very compact vessel throwing a lot of power output.

The latest class of American CVN, the Gerald R. Ford class, will be equipped with rail guns. I realize it's not exactly a compact vessel but the tech is available.

[BartSimpson]

PublicAnimalNo9 PublicAnimalNo9:

The latest class of American CVN, the Gerald R. Ford class, will be equipped with rail guns. I realize it's not exactly a compact vessel but the tech is available.

The Ford is having a lot of problems.

https://taskandpurpose.com/uss-gerald-f ... -problems/

[xerxes]

That’s too bad. The new catapult system sounded like a really good idea. Shame it’s not so great in practice.

The Zumwalt however, has its own issue. It’s fancy new gun system is too expensive too use. $800k a round

https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2018/04/19/advanced-gun-system-was-holding-back-the-navys-new-stealth-destroyer/

[PublicAnimalNo9]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

PublicAnimalNo9 PublicAnimalNo9:

The latest class of American CVN, the Gerald R. Ford class, will be equipped with rail guns. I realize it's not exactly a compact vessel but the tech is available.

The Ford is having a lot of problems.

https://taskandpurpose.com/uss-gerald-f ... -problems/

Yeah, I seen that the other day. They had major problems with their electric catapult system too. 10% of launches ended in failure. They did fix that problem though.
The major problem though is they tried to jam all this new, as yet mostly unproven technology into the ship so there's going to be major bugs to work out. It's basically a completely new design from the previous classes.

[llama66]

xerxes xerxes:

That’s too bad. The new catapult system sounded like a really good idea. Shame it’s not so great in practice.

The Zumwalt however, has its own issue. It’s fancy new gun system is too expensive too use. $800k a round

https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2018/04/19/advanced-gun-system-was-holding-back-the-navys-new-stealth-destroyer/

It's fancy new gun is a deck-decoration. The Navy bought no rounds for it.

[llama66]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

llama66 llama66:

I've read that this is an image of how close the Chinese destroyer got. Insane. Violates almost every rule of the sea I can remember.

They want a war.

This is a wonderful way to get one!

[bootlegga]

xerxes xerxes:

That’s too bad. The new catapult system sounded like a really good idea. Shame it’s not so great in practice.

The Zumwalt however, has its own issue. It’s fancy new gun system is too expensive too use. $800k a round

https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2018/04/19/advanced-gun-system-was-holding-back-the-navys-new-stealth-destroyer/

$800K a round isn't that bad - a Harpoon costs $1.2 million.