US Laser and Rail Gun Development News

Re: US Navy Laser CIWS and Rail Gun Technology and Development News

Jeff Head said:

Could you imagine, later, a nuclear powered class of cruiser with the new reactors having four batteries of these large railguns, each capable of 10 shots per minute, one every six seconds? Several batteries of smaller ones and then weaponized capable Laser or later Particle Beam CIWS to back them up. Maybe build 12 such vessels? That's where this is headed...

Click to expand...

This is one thing I have wondered myself. Do you believe that the operational induction of the railgun into the fleet will again bring about cruisers with gun batteries? With the range and projectile size it sounds usefull. However, it would necessitate that those projectiles are long range & precision guided, while at the same time being cheap enough in production and still able to handle those massive forces with all those smart circuits, that in the end they are more effective than some kind of missiles or strikes delivered by helos / planes.

It would really rather dramaticly change the design of those warships again. Two or three such weapons in the 155mm class, or maybe even a little larger, seem absolutely probably for fire support in several ways. But as the main weapon, it would be a rather radical change, I suppose.

Re: US Navy Laser CIWS and Rail Gun Technology and Development News

A nuclear powered surface ship is the most cost effective answer to the question of how do you power these energy hungry weapons. Its not like the USN hasn't built nuclear powered vessels before

Re: US Navy Laser CIWS and Rail Gun Technology and Development News

Maybe the rail guns can even have their own dedicated small scale nuclear power source in the future. Something like those cost effective pebble bed thorium reactors.

Re: US Navy Laser CIWS and Rail Gun Technology and Development News

I think making the ships "all electric" would have to come first. Nuclear power is not a requisite for point defense lasers.

Nuclear power will be necessary for ships using free electron lasers/rail guns. FEL is interesting since you can generate a wide variety of frequencies (up to X-ray range). This would enable the weapon to better adjust to complex atmospheric conditions on the ocean surface.

I've been pondering the idea of a rail-launched scram-jet ASAT for some time. Most science fiction novels set in the future don't really mention conventional surface fleets (since space ships are far more glamorous).

Re: Naval Laser CIWS and Rail Gun Technology and Development News

I have a question on direct energy weapons on navy vessels (lasers, rail guns): since they are supposed to follow a straight line - lasers for sure, i don't know railguns - aren't they limited by horizon line and earth curvature? The wiki formula for horizon is 3.57*(sq height in meters), leaving few tens kilometers (or less) away from ship deck. Either i am wrong in calculation or weapon range will be seriously handicapped.

Re: Naval Laser CIWS and Rail Gun Technology and Development News

Krabat1976 said:

I have a question on direct energy weapons on navy vessels (lasers, rail guns): since they are supposed to follow a straight line - lasers for sure, i don't know railguns - aren't they limited by horizon line and earth curvature? The wiki formula for horizon is 3.57*(sq height in meters), leaving few tens kilometers (or less) away from ship deck. Either i am wrong in calculation or weapon range will be seriously handicapped.

Click to expand...

Laser's are limited by straight line...but that also depends on the height of the platform when it fires, and the altitude of the target.

Most US Navy current laser applications are directed at CIWS, so this is not an issue.

As to rail guns, it is simply a platform for artillery that can fire a projectile at a much higher speed and thus a much longer distance. It is not at all influenced by the earth's curvature in terms of what it is capable of attacking. It is more than capable of firing at targets OTH and will be limited by what data is fed to its firing computer in terms of range, wind, etc. The US will use UAVs, Sats, recon and all sorts of other assets to pinpoint the target and feed that info into the Rail-gun electronics for a firing solution. So, against any surface target, at sea or on land, it will be a very effective weapon out to great ranges limited only by the rail-gun power supply.

Re: Naval Laser CIWS and Rail Gun Technology and Development News

Thank you Jeff, so railguns can have parabolic trajectories like other guns.

Re: Naval Laser CIWS and Rail Gun Technology and Development News

As regards Rail Gun progress, even thought the 155mm Adavancd Gun System to be initially deployed on the is going to be awesome, within 5-10 years, it will begin to be replaced by this, which has already undergone significant live fire testing:


This testing showed in this video, with the rounds and technology, is already over 3 years old. A lot of progress has been made since then.

The rail gun will be a true leap ahead, and game changer for the naval battle space. The US will have the electrical pwoer capabilities to employ this weapon on the new Ford Class carriers, the Zumwalt Class DDGs, potentially on the America Class LHAs, and reportedly on the Burk III vessels. Awesome stuff.

Re: Naval Laser CIWS and Rail Gun Technology and Development News

With the progress being made in railguns and laser hard-kill weaponization they will be revolutionary steps forward in military technology when deployed, even if in limited numbers at first. I am not familiar enough with them whether they are practical with conventional powerplants or limited to nuclear powerplants for now.

Re: Naval Laser CIWS and Rail Gun Technology and Development News

PanAsian said:

With the progress being made in railguns and laser hard-kill weaponization they will be revolutionary steps forward in military technology when deployed, even if in limited numbers at first. I am not familiar enough with them whether they are practical with conventional powerplants or limited to nuclear powerplants for now.

Click to expand...

If a conventional powerplant (like a very efficient gas turbine) can provide enough electricity, then they will work just fine.

The Zumwalt Class DDGs, the America Class LHAs and the Burke Flight III DDGs will all be conventionally powered vessels, yet all will ultimtely receive these wepaons.

The Ford Class carriers are, of course, nuclear powered, and will also receive these weapons for self defensive purposes.