Tag Archives: railgun

The Navy’s railgun’s rate of fire is now up to 2 rounds in 10 seconds, which is a lot of joules

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The Office of Naval Research quietly released footage of the all-electric railgun spitting out a couple of rounds back-to-back at Mach 6.

The undated footage comes from Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division, named after the famous 19th Century admiral whose “Dahlgren Gun” changed naval warfare leading to his nickname as the “Father of American naval ordnance.” And the electromagnetic railgun may be just as revolutionary.

If they can just get the rate of fire up high enough and the gun’s battery pack with a small enough footprint..

More in my column at Guns.com

The US Navy and its 14 inch guns

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I love a big gun.

In 1906 the HMS Dreadnought slipped from the builders dock in the British Isles and into the Atlantic Ocean. It instantly changed naval warfare with its huge battery large 12” naval guns. It could destroy any other ship afloat or on the drawing board in the world. Teddy Roosevelt’s America, home of the Big Stick and the Great White fleet was not to be outdone. In 1910 the BuOrd (US navy Bureau of Ordinance) gave birth to the 14” naval gun, officially styled the 14inch/45calibre naval gun. “14 inch” being the diameter of the shell it fired and the “45 calibre” part denoting how long the barrel was (in this case 52 feet).

That’s a heck of a gun. In fact its our “Weapon of the Month” this month.

It was designed for a half dozen battleships whose names ring through history such as the USS Arizona and USS New York. The gun was also used for massive railway cannon sent to France in World War one to defend Paris from the German Army’s Big Bertha cannon.

Till next time