New Navy Railgun Test

[Zor]

Wired article on it

Einy is going to have a non man related organism.

Zor

[LaCroix]

He's not alone in that...

That's a really weird shape for the projectile. I get the square profile of the head, but I wonder about the "lashes" at the rear end. Looks a bit like a cylinder pulled from an engine.

I also wonder why they hadn't made it more aerodynamic - it was wagging its tail like my dog on this flight. A simple cone in front of the square head-section would have done wonders.

[Omeganian]

Well, one of the news articles stated the shape was so that the projectile won't fly too far.

[Sea Skimmer]

He's not alone in that...

That's a really weird shape for the projectile. I get the square profile of the head, but I wonder about the "lashes" at the rear end. Looks a bit like a cylinder pulled from an engine.

That’s the armature. The head is flat so it wont go far nor burrow deeply into the ground so it'd be impossible to recover without digging a massive hole. If it was an actual warshot the armature would typically be designed to detach. I'm sure release of this video has nothing to do with recent budget fights over the program!

[Kanastrous]

Since there's no chemical propellant, I wonder what the ball of orange flame is from, near the start of the video. Target material vaporizing and igniting after having been struck by the projectile?

[Darmalus]

The Navy released video of the first tests, viewable above, on Tuesday. The dramatic mini-inferno in the wake of the slug fired from the railgun is the result of “1 million amps flowing through” the gun, said test chief Tom Boucher, the hypersonic speed of the shot, and the actual aluminum of the bullet — “reactive in the atmosphere” — burning off.

Burning aluminum indeed. That is a lot of energy.

[cadbrowser]

I want one!