We haven't even made a naval main gun yet. How realistic is a naval rail gun ? If rail guns are to be made we need a land version before a naval.
That sucks. I'd have loved to see the concept they're working with.
This is our developmental 155mm ramjet shell, test fired by NAMMO. Range 150km+.
As of December, 2019 150 test firings have been conducted.
NAMMO is also in the process of developing a ramjet powered a2a missile with a range of up to 400km.
Who is NAMMO
Nordic Ammunition Company - NAMMO - is one of the world's largest ammo, rocket orbital launch vehicle, missile and experimental designer and manufacturer. Products include nearly every caliber of small arms ammo and type, cannon shells ranging from 20mm supercavitating to 155mm ramjet extended range shells. the M72 LAW, AIM-9, IRIS-T, Exocet and boosters of the Ariane 5 might be more recognizable products of NAMMO's industrial might.
Maybe not. The power draw of railguns is still very large and their benefits over gun-fired hyper velocity shells suspect. Not to mention their development costs. There's a push away from railguns and towards gun-fired rail slugs offering the benefits of hyper velocity, but without the downsides or drawbacks of true railguns.
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You didn't get the joke did you ? The question was : "Who is NAMMO ", not "What is NAMMO"
A rail gun is completely different from ramjet artillery. A rail gun uses electricity to fire a slug at hypersonic speeds. A ramjet shell is simply a small ramjet powered missile which can be fired from conventional artillery.
The difference is a rail gun is a very expensive gun firing a very cheap projectile at extremely long ranges, possibly even up to 300Km, perhaps more. With a ramjet shell, you are firing a very expensive projectile using a much cheaper gun.
Development models for naval guns can be made before moving on to a rail gun. Also it's possible a rail gun will take as much time as a conventional gun to develop. And all our upcoming next generation ships already have their eyes set on foreign conventional guns, so there's no room for making changes right now.
But naturally, there are a lot of risks involved with rail gun development right now. It's still a yet to mature technology and it looks like the Americans and Chinese are taking the lead here. So their experiences will help cement the future of rail guns.
Right now, the power requirements for rail guns are quite unrealistic. It's possible only nuclear-powered ships will be able to use them effectively since the rate of fire required from naval guns is very, very high compared to the larger land guns. So it's also possible we will have to go in for conventional and rail guns in the future.
So yeah, there could be room for both, depending on what you need out of the gun. But if they fix the current power problems with rail guns, it will completely supercede naval guns over a significant amount of time.
He's referring to Narendra Modi or NaMo.
Maybe not. The power draw of railguns is still very large and their benefits over gun-fired hyper velocity shells suspect. Not to mention their development costs. There's a push away from railguns and towards gun-fired rail slugs offering the benefits of hyper velocity, but without the downsides or drawbacks of true railguns.
There should be room for both, depending on what you need out of them. Right now people are experimenting with large 25MW rail guns with expected ranges over 150Km. So one would expect large ships to carry rail guns while smaller ships may end up with a conventional gun. But who's to say a corvette with IEPS cannot carry a 10MW gun instead? The jury's still deliberating.
In India, we developed and tested a small demonstrator back in 1994. And the people developing rail guns here hope that we will replace most conventional artillery with rail guns post 2030s. As of today, we have demonstrated speeds of mach 9 and hope to push it to mach 12 and beyond, on pocket-sized guns. But it was decided early on that we should let richer countries take the lead instead of chasing after a potential white elephant 'cause we didn't have that kind of money needed at the time. The priorities have changed now. There's work going on towards coil guns as well.
Rail guns would be perfect in naval environment, due to the inherent nature of the platform that supports generation of the required power pulse, and space to accommodate the equipment and ancillaries. But how mobile and compact would be a land based rail gun system, assuming the need to generate own power? Conventional artillery trumps there as of the state of the art now
Rail guns are far from mature for us to be able to say how compact it will eventually become.
As of now they are close to being realistic only on large ships. But there's also the possibility of developing very long range artillery which can be safely used alongside a lot of power generation infrastructure. For example, one can imagine a 50MW rail gun or two deep in India like Hisar. That way, the gun is protected, and the range could easily be 300, even 500 Km, or more. Since only electricity is used, a rail gun can also be made for rapid fire use. So just a few such guns along the border will take care of most of our defensive interests at the minimum.
With enough power and speed, a rail gun can even launch objects into space for ASAT and BMD. So the applications are quite extensive.
For the rail gun to have rapid fire ability, like x rounds per minute, we would need a dedicated powerplant or it should be connected to grid. Else the capacitor bank, that stores and supplies energy for the high power pulse, takes time to charge up, depending on the ability of the primary power source. And there won't be any rapid fire ability in such guns, if not drawing power from a source which can meet the instantaneous power requirement in totality. As basic physics remain unchanged, unless some exotic resistance less conductor comes along, the power requirement is going to be a big impediment for rail guns.
Regarding BMD and asat, wouldn't it add complexity apart from the above mentioned mobility issues, as the acceleration loads will be pretty high in such a system as all the energy is transferred as a pulse to the payload instead of the somewhat gradual increment we find in rocket propelled warheads?
The Americans have achieved or are in the process of achieving 10 rounds per minute. The goal is to achieve hundreds of rounds per minute.
Like I said, it depends on what you want. The technology is highly scalable. You can even have a 10 Km long rail gun conntected to a 10GW supply if you so desire. Or you can even make a handgun. Bigger the gun, higher the recoil, but it can be done.
There is no end to size.
As for use for space, the payload will have to be ruggedised to a considerable degree, but in exchange you get to skip a stage or two and achieve SSTO or TSTO. But you get something you can use in a very short notice since the controller will only at best have to push a button to get the required payload loaded. But this wasn't the point I was making. The point I'm making is a 60mm rail gun on a corvette could end up doing much, much more than a 127 mm conventional gun on a destroyer because that's how versatile the technology is.
That's great. Could you kindly provide some links, if any. Especially any info on their powersource, capacitor banks..
In naval usage, i agree 100% with you. Ships, going forward with integrated electric propulsion, can definitely momentarily reroute power. The platform is ideal. We should go all-out in perfecting this for our future surface combatants. Especially as the hans have gone ahead of us and in this
Can't say since it's not an operational system. And any information will be misleading since most of it will be meant for use in test conditions. And even testing on ships will involve large ships with large internal spaces, like a landing ship or supply ship, so it's too early to say what the end result will be relying on open source information.
On land, it can be used as a strategic cannon.
The Army’s 1,000-Mile Long Range Cannon Is Coming Together
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