Tests of an electromagnetic gun stunned the military - a three-gram projectile that hit a steel plate turned it into plasma
Despite the disastrous reforms in our Armed Forces, the army's scientific and technical intelligence is not standing still, new types of weapons are being developed that can radically change not only the nature of modern combat, but also the balance of forces in the system of military confrontation on the world stage.
Shatura miracle
Recently, in the laboratory of the Shatura branch of the Joint Institute for High Temperatures of the Russian Academy of Sciences, tests were carried out of a unique device - the Artsimovich railgun, which is an electromagnetic cannon that still fires very small projectiles weighing up to three grams. However, the destructive abilities of such a "pea" are amazing. Suffice it to say that the steel plate placed in its path simply evaporated, turning into plasma. It's all about the gigantic speed imparted to the projectile by an electromagnetic accelerator, used instead of traditional gunpowder.
After the tests, the director of the Shatura branch of the Joint Institute for High Temperatures of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexei Shurupov told those present
to journalists:
- In our laboratory tests, the maximum speed reached 6.25 kilometers per second with a projectile mass of several grams (approximately three grams). This is very close to the first space velocity.
What kind of gun is this, and what opportunities does it promise?
Gauss principle
To begin with, it should be noted that the search for an alternative to the use of gunpowder as a working substance for accelerating a projectile in the barrel of a gun began at the beginning of the last century. As is known, propellant gases have a sufficiently high molecular weight and, as a consequence, a relatively low expansion rate. The maximum speed achieved by a projectile in traditional artillery systems is limited to about 2-2.5 km / s. This is not so much if the task is to pierce the armor of an enemy tank or ship with one shot.
It is believed that the first to put forward the idea of an electromagnetic gun were the French engineers Fauchon and Villeplet back in 1916. Based on the principle of induction by Karl Gauss, they used a chain of solenoid coils as a barrel, to which a current was applied in series. Their working model of an induction cannon dispersed a projectile weighing 50 grams to a speed of 200 meters per second. Compared with powder artillery installations, the result, of course, turned out to be quite modest, but it showed the fundamental possibility of creating a weapon in which the projectile is accelerated without the help of powder gases. In fact, even a year before Fauchon and Villeplet, Russian engineers Podolsky and Yampolsky developed a project for a 50-meter "magnetic-fugal" cannon operating on a similar principle. However, they did not manage to get funding to translate their idea into reality. However, the French did not go further than the "Gauss cannon" model, because for that time the developments seemed too fantastic. In addition, this novelty, as already noted, did not provide advantages over gunpowder.
- Systematic scientific work on the creation of fundamentally new electrodynamic mass accelerators (EDUM) began in the world in the 50s of the XX century, - told the "SP" correspondent the expert of the information center "Arms of Russia" reserve colonel Alexander Kovler. - One of the founders of domestic developments in this area was the outstanding Soviet scientist, plasma researcher L. A. Artsimovich, who introduced the concept of "railgun" into Russian terminology (the term "railgun" is adopted in English literature) to denote one of the varieties of EDUM. The railgun idea was a breakthrough in the development of electromagnetic accelerators. It is a system consisting of a power source, switching equipment and electrodes in the form of parallel electrically conductive rails from 1 to 5 meters long, located in the barrel at a short distance from each other (about 1 cm). Electric current from the energy source is supplied to one rail and returns through the fuse-link located behind the accelerated body and closing the electric circuit to the second rail. At the moment the high voltage is applied to the rails, the insert instantly burns out, turning into a plasma cloud (it is called a "plasma piston" or "plasma armature"). The current flowing in the rails and the piston creates a strong magnetic field between the rails. Interaction of magnetic flux with current flowing through
plasma, generates the electromagnetic Lorentz force, pushing the accelerated body along the rails.
Railguns allow small bodies (up to 100 g) to be accelerated up to speeds of 6-10 km / s. Actually, you can do without a projectile at all and accelerate the plasma piston by itself. In this case, the plasma is ejected from the accelerator at a truly fantastic speed - up to 50 km / sec.
What will it give?
During the Cold War, work on the creation of electromagnetic guns was actively carried out both in the USSR and in the USA. They are still strictly classified. It is only known that by the mid-80s of the last century, both sides came close to the possibility of placing a railgun gun with an autonomous power source.
on a mobile carrier - tracked or wheeled chassis. There is information that individual small arms were developed on this principle.
“The overall length of the rifles was small, but those who saw such a weapon for the first time were amazed by the massiveness of the butt. But it was there that the main mechanisms were located; there, behind the fire control handle, a very thick magazine was docked. He had such parameters not due to the countless cartridges. It was just that there was an additional, and quite powerful, battery in it. The rifle was plasma, it could not shoot without electricity. Due to caseless mechanics, it had a rate of fire inaccessible to other types of machine guns. And due to the dispersal of bullets with plasma, they received a solid acceleration, unambiguously unattainable with gunpowder devices … And only after the third or fourth silent and invisible volley did they understand what had happened … someone screamed, struck by a bullet that first pierced a comrade in front, or even two. Plasma acceleration is a terrible thing! - this is how the science fiction writer, “singer of high weapon technologies” Fyodor Berezin describes the use of electromagnetic weapons in the near future in his novel “Red Dawn”.
To this we can add that such a weapon can easily shoot down military satellites and missiles, and put on a tank, it makes a combat vehicle invulnerable. In addition, there will be practically no protection from it. A projectile with cosmic speed will pierce anything. Military expert Pavel Felgenhauer adds: “It will be possible to drastically reduce the caliber, at least by half. This means more ammunition, less weight. There will be no gunpowder on board, and this is the protection of the tank itself, it will be less vulnerable. There will be nothing to explode."
Recently, information was leaked to the press that the US Navy conducted a railgun test on December 10, 2010, which was deemed successful. The weapons were tested at 33 megajoules. According to the calculations of the US Navy, this power allows you to shoot a metal projectile at a distance of up to 203, 7 kilometers, and at the end point the speed of the blank is about 5, 6 thousand kilometers per hour. It is assumed that by 2020 guns with a muzzle energy of 64 MJ will be created. These guns are to enter service with the DDG1000 Zumwalt series destroyers under construction in the United States, whose modular design and electric transmission were designed with an eye to promising EM cannons.
With the withdrawal of the United States from the ABM Treaty, work was also resumed on the placement of electromagnetic guns in orbit. In this area, the developments of General Electric, General Research, Aerojet, Alliant Techsystems and others under contracts with the US Air Force DARPA are known.
We've fallen behind, but not hopeless
Market reforms in Russia dramatically slowed down the work on the creation of the railgun. But, despite the reduction in funding for military development of electromagnetic weapons, domestic science is also not standing still. Evidence of this is the systematic appearance of Russian surnames in the materials of the annual international conference on electromagnetic acceleration EML Technology Symposium.
The tests at Shatura also show that we are moving forward in this direction. The comparative ratio of the capabilities of Russia and the United States in this area can be judged by specific test indicators. The Americans dispersed a three-kilogram projectile to 2.5 kilometers per second (which is close to a powder accelerator). Our projectile is a thousand times smaller (3 grams), but its speed is two and a half times higher (6, 25 km / sec.)
The assessments of the prospects also sound differently. “Such weapons cannot be used on modern ships of both American and Russian. There is simply not enough energy for him. It will be necessary to create a new generation of ships with an energy system, which will provide both ship engines and their weapons,”reads a statement from the Russian Navy's Arms and Operations Directorate published in the press. At the same time, American military magazines are already publishing mock-ups of the first ship that can receive new weapons. Destroyer of the XXI century DDX should appear by 2020.
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