Railguns: getting closer to realization

[R Ditto]

Looks like the US Navy can finally do something else useful with the 7.5 megawatt power output of a US Destroyer's 3 gas turbine powered generators...

Also shows that larger (if not all) rail guns in Rifts are (still) under powered and (still) have to short of a range.

[Brian Manning]

I was wondering about how that was coming along. That's funny that the navigation system is holding it back. That's gotta be some amazing force to deal with if the nav system just can't survive the trip.

R Ditto,
I think we're ALL in agreement that the vehicle mounted rail guns shouldn't have the same stats as the man portable versions

[Borast]

I think it works out to...whatever is hit dies... Warship or other target.

[Nekira Sudacne]

I think we're ALL in agreement that the vehicle mounted rail guns shouldn't have the same stats as the man portable versions

meh, I can't say that I agree, seeing as how the "man portable" ones are too heavy to be used by pretty much anyone but a juicer or a borg, both of which could carry the vehicle-mounted on ANYWAY. . .

[Brian Manning]

I think we're ALL in agreement that the vehicle mounted rail guns shouldn't have the same stats as the man portable versions

meh, I can't say that I agree, seeing as how the "man portable" ones are too heavy to be used by pretty much anyone but a juicer or a borg, both of which could carry the vehicle-mounted on ANYWAY. . .

Yeah, but I'm talking about the giant railguns mounted on large robots and vehicles. The ones where the barrel is as big as a grunt, but only inflicts 1D6x10 or something like that.

As far as the man-portable versions, I love the weight for the large ones, but the fact that there's a pulse laser out there that can outperform any rail gun kinda kills the fun of bringing the railguns out onto the battlefield. My favorite are all the rail guns in the Warlords of Russia book. They're perfect for pretty much any man-at-arms class, and the damge is very reasonable. It's just the fact that the energy weapons outclass them by such a large margin.

[Borast]

This is starting to have the same overtones I can remember from discussions about the "tech degeneration" of the Battletech universe and the unreality of a 90m (<300') .75(?) MG, and that the Gauss Rifle mounted on the 'mechs should be one-shot-one-kill weapons regardless of the tonnage of the 'mech and thickness of it's armour, since we "are" talking about a hypersonic slug weighing 250 pounds! (8 shots to the imperial ton, or 8 shots to the metric tonne is still 125 kilos, or 275lbs, for the slug!)

Some one knowlegable in physics and ballistics (a US Naval Gunner I believe) did the math and came up with the figures for the amount of down range impact the damn thing produces...next best thing to a pocket battlefield nuke from what I remember... (I think it was on the rec.arts.games.battletech board or some such...)

[Svartalf]

You're right razor... tungsten is not magnetic... and I'm just wondering if impelling the magnetic acceleration to a discarding sabot rather than the projectile itself won't have about the same effects on range, power and accuracy as firing a powerful round out of too short a barrel...

[Borast]

Septicrazor, all they'd have to do is place a bank of batteries in the tank (maybe increase the length by 10-20%), and generators on each of the wheels of the tank...free electricity! Or, if the thought of all that acid behind you makes you nervous...fly wheels! Use the generators to electrically spin 'em up to speed, then magnetically apply the brakes to generate the current necessary to charge the capacitors in the gun! This works, 'cause you either use magnetically charged disks as the fly wheels and have a copper coil netting around the wheel that you can use as an electromagnet to start them, and as a generator to power the gun. (And the act of drawing power from the flywheels causes the wheels to slow down...requiring you to recharge through movement...give the crew an incentive to keep on the move!

[Jagged Spear]

requiring you to recharge through movement...give the crew an incentive to keep on the move!

Make the tank out of card board that will give the crew incentive to keep moving as fast as possible. Only way they would stay alive is if they are a moving target.