Scientists Shatursky branch “of the joint Institute for high temperatures, Russian Academy” develop a weapon that in their opinion, would render all modern means of protection of military equipment, according to Rosnauka.
We are talking about the famous railgun or rail gun, created employing all the leading countries of the world. Essentially, we are talking about weapons that don’t require gunpowder to fire. And the shells for this gun don’t need explosives. The acceleration of the projectile is due to the powerful electromagnetic pulse.
The principle of operation of firearms for all its long history has not changed – the projectile is pushed out of the powder gases. However, this technology has a limit – the speed of the projectile does not exceed a mile per second. Meanwhile, existing models show a rail launcher in cities the projectile speed of about 6.5 km/s, and in future this figure may be increased up to the first space. Due to this, firstly, increasing the projectile range. Secondly, and most interestingly, the projectile, flying with such great speed, accumulates a energy that in a collision with an obstacle is instantly converted into heat. Essentially, the same explosion occurs, but without any explosives. Similarly explode the meteors within the atmosphere of the earth at cosmic speeds.
Pellet weighing just two grams, is made not of metal but made of light polymers, taking off from the railgun that punches through several standing next to each other steel targets, leaving each of them a huge ragged hole.
Moreover, the rail launcher in cities can completely change the situation in the sphere of missile defense. Shoot down enemy missiles using flying at hypersonic speed projectiles (essentially, ordinary metal bars) is much easier, cheaper and more efficient than to use missiles. By the way, the railgun simply “renting” with low-altitude orbit and a satellite of the enemy.
From “civilian” capabilities of a railgun is to deliver to orbit the Earth spacecraft. According to the calculations, the value of output in the space of a kilogram of cargo by means of an electromagnetic gun at least two times lower than when using today’s rocket technologies. However, there is one snag. You need to protect against enormous accelerations – more than 60 g, or 60-fold excess weight of the subject. It is worth considering that an ordinary person can withstand a load of up to 15 g without loss of consciousness for about three to five seconds, when the overload in the 20-30 g or more loss of consciousness occurs within one or two seconds. Thus, the launch of manned spacecraft from a railgun is unlikely to become real.
Russian scientists believe that the development of the technology of electromagnetic pulses may question the existence of nuclear weapons. In conditions, when the power of the explosion is determined only by the speed of the projectile, it is possible to create a weapon with performance close to nuclear, but leaves no consequences in the form of radioactive contamination.
