Hypersonic weapons

[Rich]

In the coming decade your going to be seeing several hypersonic weapons being fielded by America, and possibly friendly allies. The first is going to be a common cruise missile that will accompany the Tomahawk and be launch-able from ship,sub,air, and land. Also being considered are larger conventional missiles that would be launched from existing Minuteman ICBM silos and trident tubes on converted Ohio class SLBMs. "Anybody have more information on these systems"? Another weapon in the family is going to be a fast attack standoff weapon. A sort of hypersonic JSSM.

Of course the jewel of the crown is the Hypersonic bomber being developed, and should be fielded in the decade time frame. Hypersoar is going to blend stealth technology with very high altitudes and top speeds in the mach-8 range,"along with hypersonic/hyper-accurate standoff weapons". Its difficult trying to envision a weapon system that can defend against it.

We have an interesting few decades coming up.

 

[zoolander]

The US and her allies have yet to have a supersonic anti ship missile cept the penguine which dont count cause it does nothing.

Germany and a French created plan for a hypersonic cruise missile that went mach 4.

Anyways missile are going to be a thing of the past when rail guns comes out.

Before that does the Harpoon is fine. It may not be fast but it sure is smart. Its capable of attacking as a group. exp. attack from all 4 sides.

 

[gf0012-aust]

The US and her allies have yet to have a supersonic anti ship missile cept the penguine which dont count cause it does nothing.

I guess you haven't seen what a Penguin does in a SINKEX

Anyways missile are going to be a thing of the past when rail guns comes out.

How so? Rail Guns are LOS, they're not suitable for deviant targets or non-LOS targets.

Rail guns definitely won't replace missiles across the board - they can't do everything that a missile can - and they certainly don't have the flexibility of some VLS solutions.

 

[turin]

How so? Rail Guns are LOS, they're not suitable for deviant targets or non-LOS targets.

Not necessarily. I am not saying that Rail Guns or Coil Guns are replacing missile systems, however there is definitely something in the works concerning NLOS-EM weapons:

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com...aleddown-rail-gun-naval-weapon/index.php#more

BAE Producing Scaled-Down Rail Gun Naval Weapon?
Posted 07-Mar-2006 07:52


BAE Armament Systems Division in Minneapolis, MN received a $5.5 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the design and production of the 32 MJ Laboratory Launcher for the U.S. Navy. The design and fabrication of the 32 MJ Lab Launcher will be a major step toward development of a full scale tactical 64 MJ EM (electro-magnetic) Gun weapon system for the U.S. Navy.
...
Jane's reports that UT-IAT (University of Texas - Institute of Advanced Technology) has devised a common low-cost projectile concept for both naval surface-fire support and army non line-of-sight (NLOS) engagements using an EM rail gun launcher. The projectile has a flight mass of 15 kg and contains either multiple kinetic-energy flechettes (darts) or a smaller number of sub penetrators made of tungsten. In its naval guise it has a muzzle energy of 64 MJ (mega-joules); a muzzle velocity of 2,500 m/s; a maximum range in excess of 500 km and an impact velocity of 1,600 m/s. That effort was part of a 2003 US Navy contract worth up to $10 million over five years, as part of a $100 million research package in the Navy's 2004 budget.
...

 

[gf0012-aust]

Not necessarily. I am not saying that Rail Guns or Coil Guns are replacing missile systems, however there is definitely something in the works concerning NLOS-EM weapons:

I noticed that the other day. Without wanting to appear pedantic, I'd argue that as soon as you employ a projectile, then you don't have a rail gun.

Rail guns in their most literal term are energy weapons that kinetically terminate. They're not projectile propulsers.

IMO they become a completely new class of weapon.

ipso facto, laser weapons are also LOS - and lasers IMO are the 1st cousins of rail guns as far as delivery processes are concerned.

but, maybe I'm being too literal?

 

[turin]

Well, apparently I am mistaken in this regard, but until now I assumed that a Rail or Coil Gun can per definitionem use some kind of projectile. The term Rail Gun only stipulates the manner of acceleration attained through the use of EM energy by using a specific technical layout. I may refer to this document (which I arguably found through wikipedia) in order to explain my view of a Rail Gun:
http://www.matthewmassey.com/RailgunTheory.htm

If I am interpreting this in a correct manner, then a Rail Gun may be used with various forms of "ammunition", be it projectiles or plasma energy or whatever.
Certainly all efforts and studies I am aware of (which arent that many, though), that center around weapon applications based on Rail Gun theory are employing projectiles, and they are referred to as Rail Guns or Coil Guns, the two being rather closely related as I am sure you know.

But to cut this short: yeah I am thinking that...maybe...in this case...you are taking this subject indeed too literal.

 

[gf0012-aust]

But to cut this short: yeah I am thinking that...maybe...in this case...you are taking this subject indeed too literal.

I've been accused of that before, so you're probably right. Pedantism is the last refuge if you're losing the argument.

 

[zoolander]

the main thing is the energy needed to power a rail gun. Unless you built on a huge power plant on boat rail guns wont happen.

Can any one find any info on the anti ship missile France and Germany develop togethter. They scrapp it in planning but it was rumored to go mach 4

 

[turin]

Well, as far as I am aware, current projections see Rail Gun type-weapons on systems like DD(X), not on FACs or corvettes. So the power issue shouldnt be that great a problem.
The first steps are taken with the EM catapult systems for the new CVN. While these coil guns are no weapons themselves, they should contribute to gaining further experience with the technology.

As for the missile question: I am only aware of the "ANS"-project, which centered around an anti-ship missile using a ram-jet with a 200 km range and top-speed of around Mach 2, quite similar to some russian systems.
Development started as a cooperation between Germany and France in the late 1980s and at the beginning of the 90s Germany withdrew from the project (for obvious political and economic reasons). The French continued work for a while but cancelled development later on.

 

[chrisrobsoar]

I may refer to this document (which I arguably found through wikipedia) in order to explain my view of a Rail Gun:
http://www.matthewmassey.com/RailgunTheory.htm

I checked out this link. If you go to the home page you find that building a rail gun was part of his graduate project. Having checked out the math, I find that the basic theory is for the most part is OK, but lots of the assumptions and boundary conditions are woolly so that the estimates of performance are not fully justified.

However, there is a good description of the project, with lots of pictures and videos of the prototype in operation. Seems they had fun building it, but it did not look very safe to me (10KV on exposed metalwork! ).

Note that this is a rail gun, not a coil gun.


Chris

 

[cosmos]

Try putting up a gamma laser orbiting the Earth

Grasners,is what they call them.There could be ones placed in a quad centering around the Earth.Also Large railguns can be put out in orbiting the Earth.A Microbeam lasers can also be used.Smaller Robotic spacecrafts can be totally A attackcraft ,to come speeding down at any target ,that it is programed to do.How about a pea sized anti-matter up it's tailpipe,it's coming back where it was sent.Because the same time a craft attaches it's self to the missile.and it guides it back where it came from.cosmos: