Japan Becomes 1st Country Ever To Fire Electromagnetic Railgun From An Offshore Vessel::Japan has successfully test-fired a medium-caliber maritime electromagnetic railgun from an offshore platform, as it continues to advance its defenses in the face of burgeoning regional security threats.

  • YoBuckStopsHere@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The U.S. Navy hasn’t declassified their tests so there is no official record. Japan was the first to openly do it.

    • steltek@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Uhh, I dunno how much declassification you’re looking for but here’s the US Navy’s Youtube channel with a video of some test firings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSce3nEY6xk

      IIRC, the problem wasn’t that it didn’t work but that the barrels wore out too quickly to be useful. I suppose they could have put this on a Zumwault like originally intended but that would just be a PR stunt when the main problem was throwing the gun away after 10 shots.

      • HurlingDurling@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I think there was an episode of Evangelion where they posed the same problem and solved by having multiple guns to switch to. I guess it’s common knowledge of thermal dynamics? IDK

      • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        If the JMSDF has gotten to this phase of development, I’m gonna have to assume they’ve either made some advances in material science that deal with the extremely accelerated corrosion/ablation in the rails/barrel, or have come up with a reasonable way to quickly swap the wear components out. Who knows - maybe it’s as simple as a spool of conductive wire/metal strip runs down the length of the barrel and gets refreshed with every shot?