Electromagnetic Gun - A Breakthrough in Naval Firepower

Future warfare requires the ability to attack thousands of targets in a single day and night compared to the few hundred targets that traditional weapons systems are currently capable of.

Today, the navy has three types of fire support including naval artillery, cruise missiles and naval aviation, in which naval aviation plays the main offensive role.

According to military experts, the combined use of artillery and cruise missiles, in which artillery takes on the main task of providing fire support, is a highly effective solution.

Long-range precision artillery could revolutionize current artillery systems. However, they cannot take on all targets due to their limited range.

Applying advanced technologies today can increase the range of artillery systems, but at a significant cost.

New possibilities

Limited by physical limitations and cost, conventional artillery systems have now reached their range limits.

Although the advent of guided range-extending rounds has extended the range of conventional artillery systems, the requirements for size, fuel and explosives make the cost of this type of ammunition quite high.

Many military experts believe that missiles are a better means than extended-range artillery shells in attacking targets from a distance of over 100 km.

However, the cost of missiles is not cheap and the number of missiles that warships carry is limited to a few dozen to about 100.

Electromagnetic cannon installed on US Navy ship for testing

Railguns are considered the most effective non-conventional long-range fire support solution. Increased projectile velocity is the key factor in increasing range, lethality and response capability because railguns do not use propellant or explosives.

Railgun technology uses a combination of energy converters and electric motors to accelerate projectiles to hypersonic speeds.

Railguns require a pulse power system to convert electrical energy into instantaneous pulses for electromagnetic firing. Most modern pulse systems use pulsed AC generators to deliver electromagnetic pulses to the rails.

The current in the rails generates a magnetic field between the rails, which interacts with the current in the core to create a Lorentz force that pushes the projectile at high speed. In the future, electromagnetic artillery systems may reach speeds of 2-6 km/sec.

The development of electromagnetic guns could move naval fire support capabilities to a new level, allowing for the strong development of the potential of electromagnetic gun technology in the future.

Studies show that a railgun with a Mach 7 velocity can fire a bullet nearly 200 km away at a rate of 6 shots per minute.

Electromagnetic cannonballs have great speed and destructive power.

In the 21st century, naval offensive missions will increase to include deep attack, interdiction, close air support and naval fire support. Rail guns are considered suitable for naval fire support missions.

If we compare a Mach 7 railgun with a firing rate of 6 rounds per minute with F/A-18 aircraft on aircraft carriers, the railgun can fire twice as many bullets, create three times more damage, and hit 10 times more targets than the F/A-18.

The important advantage of electromagnetic guns is the ability to exploit the kinetic energy stored in the bullet to create great destructive power.

In some tests, the kinetic energy of the electromagnetic gun released created a hole 3 m in diameter and 3 m deep in solid ground conditions, while in normal ground the bullet can penetrate more than 10 m.

Hypersonic artillery shells will penetrate deeply to destroy fortified targets that other weapons have difficulty destroying.

Although it does not use explosives, the kinetic energy of the artillery shell still has 3-5 times more destructive power than current artillery systems. The bullet flies at Mach 7 speed and can destroy a target 180 km away in 2 minutes.

However, the energy requirements will limit the rate of fire of electromagnetic guns to be slower than conventional guns. But the bullet velocity can compensate for the slow rate of fire and the bullet mass for the same target is only 1/2 compared to conventional artillery systems.

In addition, thanks to the use of kinetic energy, no need for propellant and explosives, the ammunition storage of the electromagnetic cannon is simple and very easy to maintain.

Battleships equipped with electromagnetic guns will soon step out of the world of movies.

Energy requirements

The difficulty researchers are currently facing is that the electromagnetic gun places significant energy demands on the ship's propulsion system.

To effectively utilize electromagnetic gun technology, an energy management strategy is required for future surface warships.

The power requirements of electromagnetic guns will be met by developing an all-electric warship with an integrated power system that can simultaneously meet the power requirements of the warship's propulsion system and high-energy weapon system.

Therefore, the equipment of electromagnetic guns is expected to depend on the development of electric warships in the future.

According to Young Knowledge