Looks like China just installed a railgun on a warship, beating the U.S. Navy to the punch

[Himanshu]

Pictures surfacing online appear to show a new weapon developed in China. The nation may have just installed a full-scale railgun on a warship, something even the United States Navy has yet to do.

HOW RAILGUNS WORK

This BAE graphic illustrates the basic principles behind railgun technology, as well as its advantages: high launch speed and range, affordability, and high firing volume). Chinese railguns on the Type 055A destroyer would likely have similar characteristics.

BAE

Railguns use electromagnetic energy, rather than gunpowder, to sling a projectile. The concept has been incredibly appealing to militaries, as the weapon offers the speed and efficiency of a cannon, but with the range of a missile.

A GLOBAL FIRST

Type 072III landing ship tank (LST) Haiyang Shan, #936, would be the world's first railgun-armed warship. Its small size and lack of combat features means that it will likely be used to test and validate the technologies of the railgun.

Da Feng Cao

Photos shared on Twitter show that the Chinese Navy's Type 072III landing ship tank (LST) Haiyang Shan, #936, has a new turret installed on its bow, replacing the H/PJ76F 37mm anti-aircraft turret. There are also three shipping containers.

CLOSE-UP

The entire railgun measures roughly 65 feet from turret rear to barrel muzzle, with the barrel itself about 33 feet long, and 12-20 feet in diameter. Such a wide barrel provides room for the parallel magnetic rails that propel metal projectiles to speeds of over Mach 7.

AndrewTear

The turret spotted indicates the presence of a railgun. It's large, for one, with a barrel that measures 26-33 feet in length and 12 to 20 inches in diameter. That's 2-3 times the cannon caliber of conventional tube artillery barrels, which generally have a diameter-to-caliber ratio of 1.25:1. Alternatively, a 350-400mm naval mortar could explain the the barrel diameter and length, but such a large mortar would be hilariously unnecessary.

Due to weight issues, there is virtually no reason for a conventional cannon to have this kind of diameter-to-caliber ratio, and so the barrel's size likely accommodates magnetic rails to propel shells to hypersonic speeds. The shipping containers are another indicator; it's likely they contain some sort of power equipment, like generators or capacitors.

Its barrel length makes the Chinese railgun similar in size to the BAE 32 megajoule railgun built for U.S. Navy testing. The BAE system is designed to fire 22-pound projectiles at Mach 7 speeds to more than 100 miles.

USN RAILGUN

Despite previous efforts to install this multi-megawatt railgun on the USNS Trenton, shifting budget priorities in late 2017 may mean that this railgun may never be carried on a USN warship.

US Navy

The United States had earlier planned to install a railgun prototype on the USNS Trenton fast transport in 2016, but this was postponed for budgetary reasons. In fact, current railgun research funding has been reported as in trouble, as the Pentagon focuses first on equipping conventional naval guns with the railgun's low-drag, high-speed ammunition.

A WORK IN PROGRESS

This photo—recently released though taken in fall 2017 but just released—shows the #936 during modifications. The supposed railgun turret is under tarps.

Chinese Internet

China's advancing work in railgun and other electromagnetic technologies shouldn't come as a surprise. In addition to copious open-source research by Chinese scientists, a program led by Rear Admiral Ma Weiming has in the past hired Chinese military engineers to build state-of-the-art electromagnetically assisted launch system (EMALS) catapults for future Chinese aircraft carriers. The program also built integrated electrical propulsion systems (IEPS) to meet the electrical needs of future Chinese warships.

And keep in mind: just because the railgun is there doesn't mean the railgun actually works. Engineers for this test, as with all other railgun work, will have to overcome formidable challenges in material durability, power storage, and projectile guidance. If successful, however, it would offer China a game-changing capability. A working railgun would likely be installed on future versions of the Type 055 destroyer, which makes sense considering the vessel has been reported to have IEPS, which would meet the electrical demands of railguns and other direct-energy weapons like lasers.

In terms of benefits, the railguns' hypersonic (Mach 5+), long-range projectiles would be perfect for cheaply and quickly knocking out high-threat air targets like ballistic missiles, aircraft, and even future hypersonic vehicles. The long range would also come in handy for missions like anti-ship warfare, supplementing shorter-ranged antiship ballistic and cruise missiles. Finally, such long-ranged artillery would be a significant addition to long-range bombardment of ground targets.

Source

https://twitter.com/x/status/959054896350703616

 

[Noodler]

China is going to supersede USA in the next 20 years. Air, Land, Space and Sea.

 

[Notsuperstitious]

This is a test deployment, but more for the PR value that China seeks in a volatile world.

A test deployment on a ship offers nothing that can not be simulated on land.

The real value is publicity. Telling other nations that USA is out and China is in.

The beating usa to the punch is sensational, the us is thinking of shelving the project.

 

[smestarz]

Can the Railgun design be used to put satellites in orbit? They might need a more powerful railgun but the potential is there and that might in a way reduce the cost of putting satellites in space and smaller satellites cna be put at shorter space of time

 

[Himanshu]

Can the Railgun design be used to put satellites in orbit? They might need a more powerful railgun but the potential is there and that might in a way reduce the cost of putting satellites in space and smaller satellites cna be put at shorter space of time

I think that amount of magnetic field would damage the satellite.

 

[Paro]

I bet its a PR stunt at the most, or else they would have installed it on a destroyer rather than a landing ship.

 

[Notsuperstitious]

I bet its a PR stunt at the most, or else they would have installed it on a destroyer rather than a landing ship.

It def has a lot of PR value no doubt. Security states like china and our western neighbor put a lot of propaganda value on their hardware endeavors.

 

[Himanshu]

Coilgun? Railgun? Chinese navy starts sea trials with super-gun

The subject was very briefly mentioned here in September 2016, in a folder entitled " The Chinese Army is interested in Maglev ", where we talk about an electromagnetic gun development project directly funded by the Chinese Navy. Finally things went much faster than our estimates since the industrial model of a railgun, or coilgun, is now installed on a Chinese landing craft which is obviously used as a test bench, and that the sea trials of this have already started, at least for the navigation part.

The story begins in an almost incognito way, in early January, when two amateur photos of the 936 Haiyangshan ship , an old Class 072 III tank landing ship that has been in service for 22 years now, have been published on the Chinese social network Weibo.

Enthusiasts were curious to see that the 37mm double barrel originally installed at the bow was replaced by something much bigger but hidden under tarpaulins.

Several 20-foot (?) Containers were also on the large deck of the building, which moved 4,800 tons full load, but no one at the time knew exactly what it was. We only know that the pictures were taken in Shuangliu (双 柳), which is one of the Wuchang shipyard sites that has been located in Wuhan since 1934.

It is then by growing several local sources that one learns that the ship actually arrived in Wuhan in October 2017 where work of transformation is undertaken.

Chinese LST 936 Haiyangshan arrived in Shuangliu in October 2017 to undergo modifications to accommodate the new gun (Photos: 荆楚 沔 阳)

At first glance, there is virtually nothing unusual about the building 936 Haiyangshan , apart from the replacement barrel (see marking ⑦ bottom) appears to be unusually large for a vessel of this size. But if we take a closer look, we see that the old Chinese amphibious boat has undergone changes like no other.

We first note that the bow doors ( ⑨ ), which allow to leave troops and rolling stock when the ship performs a "plageage", were completely sealed and welded. An observation booth ( ② ) climbed to the top of the navigation bridge, on which an equipment ( ① ) of unknown function and pointing to the front was installed on top.

Three 20-foot containers ( ③ , ④ and ⑤ ), at least one of which is equipped with reversible air conditioning, which therefore indicates the presence of instruments or operators inside, are on deck, plus one fourth ( ⑧ ) which was put in front of the bridge and connected by many electric cables with the interior of the building.

This last container, in Belgian color, is reminiscent of a temporary electric generator.

Until then, nothing seems to be able to be added. It was not until Friday, January 26, when the vessel was transferred to the main Wuchang shipyard site near Ying Wu Zhou Bridge (鹦鹉 洲 长江 大桥) that crosses the Yangtze River in Wuhan, so that passersby can finally have a glimpse of 936 Haiyangshan almost 'metamorphosed' .

Indeed, the tarpaulins being removed now, the mystery cannon at the bow with its large turret has finally unveiled under the eyes of the curious. The size of this turret is so large that it occupies almost the entire space at the bow of the ship.

It can also be seen that one of the containers previously on the deck is actually six side doors and this is reminiscent of some models of silent electric generator that are placed in a container for easy transport. It will be noted that the Belgian container installed in front of the superstructure in early January has now disappeared.

Chinese LST at new location (Photos: AndrewTear)

Another view of the modified LST 936 Haiyangshan (Photo: AndrewTear, Annotations: East Pendulum)

Another amateur photo is posted quickly and shows that the ship equipping the new gun system and mysterious containers has taken the "sea" (river), sign that the Chinese LST has already started its navigation tests and should soon go back to the sea to start shooting tests, traffic on the Yangtze River is very dense all day.

It can be seen therefore that the tube of the barrel, separated into two parts of different diameter, is in fact supported by two hydraulic jacks, probably to ensure more stability at the time of the shots.

Despite the rudimentary appearance with tarpaulins at the beginning of the transformation work, the turret now has a form "stealth", or at least worked, once mounted and it is more like a product than an experimental prototype.

Note also the presence of some tactical communication antennas, installed just behind the barrel.

So what can we draw from these photos?

In the first place, the weapon system of any kind present would be in the process of passing its validation phase, according to a former technical officer of the Chinese navy. Indeed, the very strict procedures defined by the Chinese Navy for testing at sea of arms automatically remove any possibility that it is a prototype, in which case it would not even have the opportunity to be installed on a ship currently in service.

Secondly, the choice to use an LST of 4,800 tons as a test rig ship while the Chinese navy has at least two buildings dedicated to surface arming tests, the Type 909, could be explained by the fact that the gun under test requires a large number of equipment and therefore large volume for its operation. The large apron and the long upper deck of an LST can therefore satisfy this need but not in the case of a Type 909. It is for the same consideration that the US Navy had planned to use a fast transport vessel. JHSV as a test bench at sea for its future railgun.

It also suggests, indirectly, that the system that will pass its validation tests is not a simple conventional gun.

Then, one can ask the question to know why the transformation work is not done at the shipyard Hudong-Zhonghu in Shanghai, where the LST Type 072 III are built initially, but the shipyard Wuchang in the middle of China. The possible explanation is that Wuhan is the city where most of the major institutions that work on the project, such as the Chinese Navy Engineering University, are located, and the Wuchang shipyard also has long experience in LST construction for years.

On the type of gun in question, three hypotheses are debated today - When some think that it is a new model of naval gun of very big caliber, well beyond 203 to 460 mm, of others evokes the possibility that it is a railgun or Chinese coilgun.

The former Chinese Navy technical officer mentioned above speaks of a third possibility which consists of a new mechanism to reload a cannon into shells in a horizontal way, even if it looks more seriously at the hypothesis than a railgun or a coilgun.

But there is also a fourth possibility, which is to say that this new mysterious gun could be an ETC (Electro-Chemical) gun, which uses a plasma cartridge to ignite and control the propellant of a shell in order to lengthen the range considerably. of the last.

Of these four possible candidates, it seems reasonable to discount the possibility that it is a conventional super-gun. On the one hand because the Chinese navy had already decided to harmonize its naval guns to restrict itself to only three calibers - 30, 76 and 130 mm - and secondly because technically speaking the Chinese manufacturers do not need to enlarge both the turret and the barrel system, which easily exceeds 8 meters in length, if it were only to achieve a 155 mm for long-range strikes, by referring to the land cannons developed by the NORINCO group .
The hypothesis of a possible new "horizontal" loading mechanism for shells also seems implausible, because of its very difficult integration on a warship, and above all it would not have mobilized so many resources.

As for the question of whether it is a railgun, a coilgun or an ETC gun, the arguments to support one or the other exist but it is difficult to decide for the moment.

Technically speaking, the Chinese institutions started very early in the 1980s on these three types of electromagnetic launch and achieved quite significant results.

Examples include the 303EMG Experimental Hybrid Cannon, whose development and test fire was completed in 1988, which has already successfully propelled a 30.2 g shell at a muzzle velocity of 3,000 m / s. in the laboratory.

This system actually combines two electrically conductive parallel rails (railgun) placed at the front, and a rear part with a coiled coil of solenoids (coilgun). The results were jointly evaluated by the Chinese Navy and the Chinese Academy of Sciences at the time, who found them "encouraging and equivalent to those obtained by Western countries over the same period".

On the other hand, the China Academy of Engineering Physics (CAEP) and the Beijing University of Technology (北京 理工 大学) and other Chinese universities have also been working on several ETC canon projects since the beginning of 90's.

More recently, a research paper published by the Beijing Institute of Special Electromechanical Technology shows that firing trials of a 6-meter railgun powered by a 3.2 MJ PPU (Pulse Power Unit) and 32 NPS ( Pulse Forming Network) of 100 kJ, have been made. Chinese researchers say the system can be easily upgraded to 10 MJ and reduce the length of the gun to 4 meters instead of 6. All this suggests a possible application in the military field.

And as already mentioned at the beginning, a naval electromagnetic gun project was launched in 2013 and it was entrusted to the Institute 206 of the aerospace group CASIC and the Beijing University of Technology, which have also built a Joint laboratory in June 2016 to work together on the mechanical simulation related to the electromagnetic launch in aerospace. This one way or another demonstrates the general advance on possible applications around the field.

At least five Chinese institutions are involved in "capital" projects around railgun, coilgun or related hybrid systems during the 12th and 13th Five Year Plan. For example, on 19 February 2014, the former deputy commander of the Chinese Air Force was reported to have been fired by teams from the CETC Institute.

Physically, the new gun in Wuhan is a little more like the railgun being developed by BAE Systems for the US Navy, but at this level it is very unwise to rely on physical resemblance to identify such a system. weapons.

However, the containers on the 936 Haiyangshan Bridge could be a part of PPU / PPS to provide the mass of energy required, NFP where the generated energy is stored, or the compartment of control. There is no doubt that, in the case of a railgun or coilgun, the lower tier of the ship should also be filled for the different associated systems.

Anyway, we can already speak of an advanced state, see very advanced, in the development of such a gun of next generation made by Chinese manufacturers.

Finally, many are already wondering if it is possible that this electromagnetic gun can be integrated tomorrow on the current destroyers of the Chinese naval forces. Because of its very large size, especially in length, it seems unlikely that the system could be installed as such on a Type 052D, which would not have enough space between the position of its main gun H / PJ-45 130 mm and vertical launch cells located just behind.

On the other hand, it seems still possible to integrate the turret on the Type 055 of more than 10 000 tons, but the various equipment to ensure the functioning of a railgun or coilgun will inevitably force the engineers of the 701 Institute (CSIC ) to review any layout on the lower deck levels, which is to rethink a good part of the ship and rebalance the whole.

Given the amount of work to be done and the current state of the system, it is more reasonable to speak of a delay of 5 to 7 years before you can see a railgun, coilgun or others entered into service on a ship Chinese war, unless the geopolitical context changes abruptly and a gun of this kind is raised to a "strategic national" level, which is logically impossible.

 

[RowdyRathore]

Can the Railgun design be used to put satellites in orbit? They might need a more powerful railgun but the potential is there and that might in a way reduce the cost of putting satellites in space and smaller satellites cna be put at shorter space of time

When Chinese can claim to knock down a ship moving at 50 knots with their supper precise land based Ballistic missile. I'm damn sure they'll figure it out this thing too.

 

[Shajida Khan]

Can the Railgun design be used to put satellites in orbit? They might need a more powerful railgun but the potential is there and that might in a way reduce the cost of putting satellites in space and smaller satellites cna be put at shorter space of time

Umm... You don't meed to put a coilgun/railgun in orbit. A tungsten rod high in the orbit has enough potential energy to give a nuke a run for its money, Seriously, we should think space / orbit as a bow with a very large margin to stretch the cord. You store energy, incrementally then let it unleash at your enemies for great effect! There is a real weapon project around it AFAIK. Funny thing is, it cannot be intercepted. Its just a hunk of hard and heavy metal.

The Air Force's 'rods from god' could hit with the force of a nuclear weapon — with no fallout

 

[Zen0]

U.S. budget is 600 billion if they didn't instalvit it means it wasn't enough to outshine its competitors. Whatever China has , U.S. has better.

 

[Shajida Khan]

U.S. budget is 600 billion if they didn't instalvit it means it wasn't enough to outshine its competitors. Whatever China has , U.S. has better.

Actually, its all speculation. No one knows for sure if what has been installed a rail gun for test or something else. They are speculating based on a twitter users pictures that were posted. That is all.
It could be all a dummy for you know. No one has seen it firing anything.

For that matter, in the US, they came to the conclusion that High Velocity Projectile or HVP made out of tungston has better value of its own rather than in railgun. They are planning to use that in a traditional gun. Much cheaper to develop and incremental. Also, it is interesting because US has operated a number of nuclear powered ships. Unlike China where only nuclear powered vessels are subs.

To me a lot of these things appear as a economic weapons. You know China does not need to prove that it has a working weapon. It only leaks bits and pieces and forces US to spend a pretty penny on expensive items. Somewhat like 'making missiles like sausages' comment from cold war era. Only this time around, the US is on the receiving end and economically on a weaker footing.

 

[Kshithij Sharma]

OTO Melara 76mm multi-role Naval Gun:

This gun is anytime better than a Rail Gun. There is very little incentive to keep a railgun on a ship. These railguns consume too much power and also reload too slowly. The rail gun shells also have limitation that they must be mostly metallic and other types of bombs/grenade based shells can't be used as they are unlikely to be propelled by magnetic energy. The railguns are also quite long for sustained acceleration and has many other components like large capacitors/alternators to store energy etc making railguns extremely bulky.

Rail Guns are bad quality guns for almost all practical purposes

 

[_Anonymous_]

OTO Melara 76mm multi-role Naval Gun:

This gun is anytime better than a Rail Gun. There is very little incentive to keep a railgun on a ship. These railguns consume too much power and also reload too slowly. The rail gun shells also have limitation that they must be mostly metallic and other types of bombs/grenade based shells can't be used as they are unlikely to be propelled by magnetic energy. The railguns are also quite long for sustained acceleration and has many other components like large capacitors/alternators to store energy etc making railguns extremely bulky.

Rail Guns are bad quality guns for almost all practical purposes

Between you and infowarrior , I'm sure Team Stratfront & the Admin / Mod team will find it extremely difficult to choose between the most invaluable member of this forum come December . I certainly don't envy them nor wish to be in their shoes .

 

[Manmohan_MMY]

PR Stunt, likely a fake

 

[Kshithij Sharma]

Between you and infowarrior , I'm sure Team Stratfront & the Admin / Mod team will find it extremely difficult to choose between the most invaluable member of this forum come December . I certainly don't envy them nor wish to be in their shoes .

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

 

[_Anonymous_]

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

Of all the members , it's you quoting this phrase that makes it so apt !

 

[Kshithij Sharma]

Of all the members , it's you quoting this phrase that makes it so apt !

You & Bonobashi are in serious competition to be the leading spammers. Seriously, the admins of this forum will have a tough time sorting the mess created. Rightly as your name suggests, the topics o the threads is completely anonymous and irrelevant to you.

 

[Shashank]

China confirms Railgun developmental trials at Sea

IT’s a world first.

China has confirmed it has a warship-mounted electromagnetic rail gun, and that sea tests are underway.

It’s a new weapon that abandons conventional gunpowder for intense — but carefully controlled — magnetic fields. These can accelerate projectiles to enormous speeds — making them fly further and more difficult to dodge.

The gun works by placing a projectile on an armature between two conductive rails. Once an electric charge is driven into the rails, two powerful magnetic fields form to create a “Lorentz force” blast.

This can launch the projectile at hypersonic speeds.

But immense technological challenges needed to be overcome before the weapon became reliable enough for operational use. This included an immense power supply, as well as maintaining consistent control over the magnetic fields.

China’s People’s Liberation Army posted an article earlier this week, lauding a leading female member of the research team that has successfully developed the new technology.

Associate research fellow at the People’s Liberation Army Navy University of Engineering Zhang Xiao had been awarded the “Red Banner” for her achievements on “the eve of the March 8th Women’s Day”.

“After hundreds of failures and more than 50,000 tests,” Zhang achieved the first ship-borne and largest “repeating power supply system” in the world, the report says.

Zhang states in the video profile that a “new weapon test” aboard a ship was successful, and that she had been responsible for its “power supply maintenance” and “the system simulation”.

Her award comes on the heels of speculation surrounding pictures released on Chinese social media in January that appeared to show a distinctive-looking rail gun mounted to a military landing ship, the Haiyang Shan.

Chinese state media outlet Global Times quotes commentators as saying the achievement overtakes the United States as the world leader in rail gun development.

“The repeating power supply system is the power source of an electromagnetic rail gun. The US started developing it earlier than China and has carried out more experiments and tests, and both the US and China’s railguns run on the same operating principle. But thanks to the repeating power supply system, China’s rail gun has a more stable and continuous power supply,” Song Zhongping, a military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times.

“The use of railguns is more suitable for navy vessels rather than ground forces or other units, because a rail gun requires a sustainable and massive energy supply, and if it is used by a ground force, it will need a power station to follow it all the time. But modernised naval vessels all have electric generators and can provide sustainable and massive power sources.”

The rail gun test involved a team of more than 200 researchers and personnel, the report states.

 

[Himanshu]

The electromagnetic cannon that the Chinese navy will equip after the sea Test campaign is in fact a railgun. It is characterized by a muzzle velocity of 2500 m/s and a power of 32 MJ, and is able to shoot continuously.

https://twitter.com/x/status/981412199062233088