Electromagnetic guns should be fitted on China’s new destroyer

[Prawn2king4]

Headline in China's "Global Times".

This is a state sponsored newspaper I know; bur could someone elaborate on the subject of electromagnetic guns?

[Wensleydale]

There may well be a mistranslation from the Chinese for Electronic Countermeasures?

[unmanned_droid]

Nope, they're talking about rail guns or coil guns.

In this particular instance its a rail gun. Recent coverage from Chinese defence observers show that they have fitted one to an LPD ship for trials on its next mission out to the contested islands.

[A_Van]

IMHO, fitting a rail gun on a ship does not mean much. Could well be just a prototype that will then be garbaged.
Even if it is not entirely a hot air balloon, the question is how long will it take to become a real weapon.

I recall that USN and industry experimented with such a facility but it has not advanced yet beyond prototyping. Though current ships like Zumwalt can generate enough megawatts of power, the question is how many shots per min can be produced and how much capacitors will cost (not only in terms of money, but space, weight, maintainability, etc.).

[unmanned_droid]

Yes, the problem is rounds per minute and how many minutes you get per barrel.

A problem of metallurgy.

[woptb]

Having read a recent paper,the biggest stumbling block would appear to be the size of the extension lead.

[andytug]

They have a nasty habit of destroying themselves, but if they can get it to work it's a fame changer, no nasty explosives to carry around and a shell that goes Mach 5 is impossible to defend against with current technology. It's a very very big if though.....
Think the Zumwalt is a bit different, it uses fancy hybrid shell/missile technology which is why the rounds cost $800k each, and since they're not building many more ships the supply of said rounds has dried up.

[unmanned_droid]

They have a nasty habit of destroying themselves, but if they can get it to work it's a fame changer, no nasty explosives to carry around and a shell that goes Mach 5 is impossible to defend against with current technology. It's a very very big if though.....
Think the Zumwalt is a bit different, it uses fancy hybrid shell/missile technology which is why the rounds cost $800k each, and since they're not building many more ships the supply of said rounds has dried up.


Well, as ever, part of the massive cost per round was the fact that they'd produce less of the rounds. I'd think laser terminal guidance would be useful for rounds like that but, accelerating to such huge speeds in short distances just kills anything mechanical so steering is always going to be hard work.

I had read that the US rail gun was shelved for cost savings.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/02/photos-show-china-preparing-to-test-naval-railgun/

[1771 DELETE]

They have a nasty habit of destroying themselves, but if they can get it to work it's a fame changer, no nasty explosives to carry around and a shell that goes Mach 5 is impossible to defend against with current technology. It's a very very big if though.....
Think the Zumwalt is a bit different, it uses fancy hybrid shell/missile technology which is why the rounds cost $800k each, and since they're not building many more ships the supply of said rounds has dried up.

You are confusing the DDG 1000 155mm gun and a rail gun. two completely different things. The 155mm is a guided munition but because the class buy went from 32 down to 3 hulls munitions have become extremely expensive. It is not widely known, but BAE is responsible for the 155mm.
The rail gun is about to get fitted to a littoral support ship for trials and yes, Zimwalt has plenty of Megawatts available from the 4 RR engines.

[tartare]

Hypersonic wave riders.
Rail guns.
Each time I read one of these stories about the middle kingdom's progress in developing these things - I remind myself - let's see the live fire demonstration and lets see it reliably repeated.
Then I'll be worried.