U.S. Navy unveils high-speed rail gun

[madokie]

http://www.asminternational.org/news/videos/-/journal_content/56/10192/20085491/VIDEO
Mach 7

[Historic NY]

1. I remember when rail gun meant one on the rail road...

The navy still has 2 of them preserved in Dc & Va.

[Bigmack]

2. Cool....

... I just love all the new shiny toys the MIC builds.

The F-35 is my favorite, 'cause it goes ZOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!

Much better to spend my money on that shit than feeding hungry Americans or rebuilding our infrastructure or any of that shit.

[Boom Sound 416]

10. The interstate system

Was a military construct.

[Bigmack]

11. ...and...?

That was the 1950's....Ike. Remember how he warned about the MIC?

I am eternally grateful for the Interstates.

Do I now have to be grateful for the hundreds of $Trillions pissed away on shiny military hardware that is un-needed or just doesn't work?

For the past 13 years U.S. military spending has increased 114 percent. That's 8 percent higher than at the height of Reagan's presidency and the Cold War.

Defense spending is higher today than at any time since the height of World War II.

America's defense spending doubled in the same period that its economy shrunk from 32 to 23 percent of global output.

Each day in Afghanistan costs the government more than it did to build the entire Pentagon.

In 2008, the Pentagon spent more money every five seconds in Iraq than the average American earned in a year.

The pentagon budget consumes 80% of individual income tax revenue.

We can't afford this shit!

http://www.businessinsider.com/military-spending-budget-defense-cuts-2011-10?op=1#ixzz3E5hn2hD5

[Uncle Joe]

13. After viewing the video this seems to be much cheaper than existing weapons and could eliminate

the use of gunpowder.

On the video they state this reverses the cycle of continually more expensive weapons while being much more effective against other ships, incoming missiles or planes.

[Bigmack]

16. That's right.... the arms race has always been toward cheaper and cheaper...

... weapons.

Look at the evolution of the troop carriers in the Sandbox... from Hummer to MRAP.

Before WWI, it was thought that the machine gun would end wars, since it was so terrible that nobody would go to war.

Read my lips... I DON'T BELIEVE ANYTHING THE MIC SAYS!

[Uncle Joe]

18. Actually it hasn't but that doesn't mean it couldn't be.

It's early yet and time will tell but it's possible this could be cheaper than expensive missiles, what the Admiral in the video says makes some sense.

[Boom Sound 416]

39. Their are many things to be grateful for

Starting stemming from military funding. Like the Internet.

[A HERETIC I AM]

23. Bullshit.

I've seen this myth before on DU and it always amazes me.

The Interstate Highway system was NOT a "military construct" nor was it a Department of Defense project, it wasn't designed specifically for the movement of troops and tanks with public transport as an afterthought and it was never supposed to be used exlclusively by the military.

I have seen all these arguments over the years and they are all utter bullshit.

Sure, the proper name is "The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways" but that in no way means it was a military construct.

[Boom Sound 416]

38. That's exaclty what it was.

It had many ancillary uses, but it was about fighting a two ocean war.

[A HERETIC I AM]

41. Absolute and utter nonsense.

It wasn't about "fighting a two ocean war" any more than the construction of the PA Turnpike was about the rivalry between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

The entirety of the concept was brought up AFTER we had decimated every major industrial power on the planet.


The Interstate Highway System was built to facilitate the efficient moment of goods and citizens across the country safely. The fact that it could be used in war time was a SECONDARY consideration.

[snooper2]

42. could you update wikipedia with what you know?

As the landmark 1916 law expired, new legislation was passed—the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921 (Phipps Act). This new road construction initiative once again provided for federal matching funds for road construction and improvement, $75 million allocated annually.[5] Moreover, this new legislation for the first time sought to target these funds to the construction of a national road grid of interconnected "primary highways" setting up cooperation among the various state highway planning boards.[5]

The Bureau of Public Roads asked the Army to provide a list of roads it considered necessary for national defense.[6] In 1922 General John J. Pershing, former head of the American Expeditionary Force in Europe during the war, complied by submitting a detailed network of 200,000 miles of interconnected primary highways—the so-called Pershing Map.[5]

A boom in road construction followed throughout the decade of the 1920s, with such projects as the New York parkway system constructed as part of a new national highway system. As automobile traffic increased, planners saw a need for such an interconnected national system to supplement the existing, largely non-freeway, United States Numbered Highways system. By the late 1930s, planning had expanded to a system of new superhighways.

In 1938 President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave Thomas MacDonald, chief at the Bureau of Public Roads, a hand-drawn map of the United States marked with eight superhighway corridors for study.[6] In 1939, Bureau of Public Roads Division of Information chief Herbert S. Fairbank wrote a report called Toll Roads and Free Roads, "the first formal description of what became the interstate highway system", and in 1944 the similarly themed Interregional Highways.[7][8]

The Interstate Highway System gained a champion in President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was influenced by his experiences as a young Army officer crossing the country in the 1919 Army Convoy on the Lincoln Highway, the first road across America. Eisenhower gained an appreciation of the Reichsautobahn system, the first "national" implementation of modern Germany's Autobahn network, as a necessary component of a national defense system while he was serving as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II.[9] He recognized that the proposed system would also provide key ground transport routes for military supplies and troop deployments in case of an emergency or foreign invasion.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System

[Boom Sound 416]

43. Decimated every major power?

Like the USSR

How did that work out with the North Koreans backed up by China?

[Boom Sound 416]

45. Let's just cut to the chase.

It was about moving the nukes to the silos.

And I'm totally fine with it.

[rickford66]

36. Not completely accurate

Ike framed the system as a military necessity to get it though Congress. If I remember from reading, Ike as a young Army officer was tasked to drive across the US to gauge the non-railroad ability to transport supplies. Of course there were practically no roads and he knew there would be a real civilian need for them. He was wise enough to realize there was more money for the military than for civilian infrastructure.

[Boom Sound 416]

37. You say the reason why it's a military construct in your response

Military logistics

[rickford66]

46. No

He was tasked as a young officer for a military purpose, but as president only presented it as a military necessity only to get funding. He personally wanted it for civilian purposes. Do some reading. Try a biography.

[Lee-Lee]

24. I have to feel there is some irony

In this being posted using a medium that was a MIC project originally.

[n2doc]

3. I wonder what sort of science or health discoveries could have been made with that money?

Don't think there will be much 'trickle down' from this project.

[Recursion]

4. The materials research also helps MRI designers (nt)

[madokie]

9. I think all new discoveries have some trickle down to it

Its possible that the way to put satellites in orbit could one day use some of the science learned from this project.

Anyways from reading the replies I wish I'd never posted this to begin with.
Oh and I do agree that the money could have been better spent.
In my way of thinking we would do better with making fewer enemies than new weapons to kill them off if the truth was known
Mybad for posting this OP, sorry

[dumbcat]

15. What response were you expecting

if I may ask?

[denbot]

19. As an old Destroyer man, I would welcome the lack of powder magazines on ships.

A direct magazine hit dooms a ship and it's crew. Kenetics will lessen that possibility.

An upside to the research could lead to near orbit launch systems.

[hunter]

5. The last world war will last about a day.

And the only survivors will be nomadic peoples without any fixed addresses, official papers, cell phones, or motor vehicles, who will tell incredible stories of a lost people gone mad as they forge their simple tools from bits of shredded metal they find.

[librechik]

6. what the fuck do we need that for??? Men will be boys, i guess. n/t

[zipplewrath]

7. Ship power

Rail guns are particularly useful on ships because they can use the ships engines to power them. It means they don't have to store as many explosive charges on the ship. They are working on catapults for the aircraft carriers that work similarly.

[librechik]

26. you know what would also solve that problem? No more war.

war is obsolete since 1945. can we focus on the right things please?

[stevenleser]

29. Everyone here already knows that and has factored that into their comments. nt

[librechik]

31. yes, i can tell that by the loving and precise descriptions of the firearms & their power.

And the assertions about how we really need them. Cuz we might have a naval engagement. In 1898.

I know there really great for shelling land targets. Can we stop doing that please?

I didn't really look, so can you direct me to the other anti-war posts on this thread?

Sorry to troll on you. I'm in a bad mood today.

[Rocket_Scientist65]

27. Already working on board the USS Gerald R. Ford CVN-78

The catapults are electromagnetic catapults or EMALS, though they are still working on getting their reliability up to snuff.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Gerald_R._Ford_(CVN-78)

Having served on the Nimitz, the new Ford class looks like quite a departure from the last generation of carriers.

Edit: spelling

[DavidG_WI]

22. As well as reduce the number of bomblets left after an attack...

Since a large number of those fail to detonate and then remain a hazard for decades. If you have enough speed you don't need explosives, the slug or darts coming to a sudden stop will be unleashing enough kinetic energy to destroy the target, regardless of the amount of armor.

[librechik]

25. you know what would also solve that problem? No more war.

can we focus on the right things for once? War is obsolete since 1945.

[stevenleser]

28. Everyone here already knows that and has factored that into their comments. nt

[stevenleser]

30. The physics is interesting. Unfortunately, it reminds me of how the shuttle Columbia

was fatally damaged during launch by basically extremely fast moving piece of foam insulation. It took a lot of tests to convince the engineers that foam could destroy steel and other metals if propelled fast enough. But tests proved it.

Hurl large chunks of a dense metal fast enough and the effects are devastating.

[DavidG_WI]

40. Fun with physics!

Don't forget to hover the cursor over the images...

Relativistic Baseball https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/
Glass Half Empty https://what-if.xkcd.com/6/
Laser Pointer https://what-if.xkcd.com/13/
BB Gun https://what-if.xkcd.com/18/
Machine Gun Jetpack https://what-if.xkcd.com/21/
Steak Drop https://what-if.xkcd.com/28/
Hair Dryer https://what-if.xkcd.com/35/
Enforced By Radar https://what-if.xkcd.com/87/

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. And, for their next really cool toy.....

[Bigmack]

20. Hey... I resembled that toy... (about a million years ago)

I always thought GI Joe and the other war dolls should come with a tape/CD/whatever of the screams of the wounded.

[FLPanhandle]

12. This is pretty cool technology when perfected.

I'm a big opponent of excessive military spending, but this could have many civilian applications.

[Bigmack]

17. ...especially in "Stand Your Ground" states. nt

[hatrack]

14. Ah, so no high-speed raill, but high-speed rail guns . . .

Got it!

[madokie]

33. You're smarter than what this reply of yours implies

[DavidG_WI]

21. This isn't exactly new

I remember reading about this during the development stage nearly a decade go now.

At the time they where already talking about using it to fire sabot rounds filled with large metal darts, that would separate in flight like a spray of shotgun pellets and all hit with the same relative energy of a hand grenade. Also, last I checked the current max speed is mach 12 before anything fired from the rail gun wouldn't make it to it's target instead of burning up like a small meteor due to the heat generated by wind resistance.

[lumberjack_jeff]

32. I had a hard time getting past the lead-in

"The Navy has unveiled a new secret weapon..."

This is why I don't have tv.

"$25,000 each is one one-hundredth of the cost of a equivalent missile."

[whatchamacallit]

34. What better time to share War Porn?

[madokie]

35. Apparently this, if it pans out, will make our ships a lot safer for the sailors

No more or a lot less explosives on board has to be a good thing. This has been in development for over a decade and I've been following the development for most of that time. So yes this is as good as any time to share this with others.

[hifiguy]

44. When is it gonna turn up on Mythbusters??