Chapter 918: A bullet capable of penetrating an aircraft carrier
For weapons like electromagnetic railguns, even if you just go to the street and grab an ordinary person for an interview, I believe he can tell a thing or two.
This technology, regarded as a 'disruptive' weapon in the 21st century, can theoretically launch projectiles at a speed of more than ten times the speed of sound, with a range of more than 300 kilometers.
If it is in a vacuum, its speed can even reach sub-light speed.
So in theory, it can not only intercept missiles launched by enemy ships and armor, but can also be used to destroy low-orbit satellites in outer space, destroy enemy warships, and even aircraft carriers!
Therefore, the black technology of electromagnetic railgun became a key research project during the Cold War between the red and blue sides in the last century, as well as in the "Star Wars" plan proposed by the United States.
Since the early 1980s, the United States has invested billions of dollars in the development of electromagnetic rail guns.
But decades have passed. On this project, Washington is still facing three major challenges: energy supply, orbit erosion, and precision guidance. It can be said that there has been little progress on the core issues.
So after spending a lot of money, manpower and material resources, and killing Hongsu, its only opponent at the time, the US government chose to voluntarily abandon this technology and no longer invested a lot of money in it, limiting it to various enterprises or research.
Institutions conduct their own research.
After all, when they first publicized this black technology and invested money in research and development, they did not fully expect to develop it. It was more to attract their rival Hongsu to invest a lot of resources in the space war.
If they can develop it, everyone will be happy. If they can't do it, they can achieve their goal as long as they pull the crotch of Hongsu.
As for the 'black technology' proposed by the United States in order to deal with Hongsu, even when they themselves were unable to complete it, China did it.
...
Xiangchu, Jiangcheng.
Chujiang Naval Engineering University, as soon as Xu Chuan got off the car, a hearty voice came to his ears.
"Academician Xu, welcome, long time no see."
Ouyang Zhen, the head of the Naval Equipment Department, strode over with a smile on his face.
Xu Chuan greeted him with a smile, stretched out his hand to shake hands with Mr. Ouyang, and said, "Long time no see, Mr. Ouyang."
Ouyang Zhen nodded with a smile and said, "Yes, after the launching ceremony of the Haixi, two years have passed in the blink of an eye. Time flies so fast."
After a few words of greeting, he turned slightly aside and introduced with a smile: "Academician Xu, let me introduce you."
"This is Academician Wang Enge from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and this is Academician Wang Yong from the School of Engineering, Naval University of Engineering. This electromagnetic railgun technology was led by these two academicians."
"Academician Wang, long time no see."
Xu Chuan smiled and stretched out his hand to shake hands with the two Academicians Wang and said hello respectively.
He knew these two Academicians Wang, of course, he had only met them once.
The last time Gao Hongming came to him and asked him to help solve the problem of magnetic field control in the electromagnetic rail gun, the two academicians rushed from Jiangcheng to Jinling the next day.
Academician Wang Enge smiled, shook hands and said, "Yes, we have been away from Jinling for more than half a year. The research on the electromagnetic rail gun project is thanks to your support."
Xu Chuan smiled and said: "It's just a trivial theoretical work. The specific research work is still led by the two academicians Wang. The biggest contribution is you."
On the side, Academician Wang Yong shook his head and said: "Insignificant? I think it is the most critical research."
"You must know that so many research institutes and laboratories in so many countries around the world are studying this, but so far no one has dared to stand up and say that they have solved the problem of electromagnetic orbital ablation."
"Without your mathematical theory, I'm afraid we would still be stuck in front of this difficult problem and unable to get in."
Xu Chuan smiled and said: "Theory is just a theory. It is also a huge problem to transform the theory into the corresponding mathematical models and tools and apply it to real technology. These are all your hard research."
After a slight pause, he continued: "Let's not talk about this anymore. I heard from Chief Ouyang that the electromagnetic rail gun technology is complete and can be loaded onto ships?"
Hearing this, both Academicians Wang couldn't help but smile on their faces.
There is no doubt that as the core personnel leading the research team, being able to achieve today's major breakthrough in electromagnetic railgun technology is the thing that makes them most proud.
Smiling and nodding, Academician Wang Yong said, "Let's go, I'll take you to see our latest research results."
...
Arriving from Jinling to Jiangcheng, Xu Chuan didn't even take a sip of tea before following the two academicians Wang into the testing laboratory of the National Key Laboratory of Electromagnetic Energy Technology.
Of course, he didn't care if he had a sip of tea. Compared to this, the electromagnetic rail gun was obviously more attractive.
Following the footsteps of Academician Wang Yong, the group came to the open test site of the laboratory and saw a completed electromagnetic rail gun.
From the appearance point of view, this rail gun, which represents extremely high application in the electromagnetic field, is actually a long silver-white pipe connected to a square base, which looks very ordinary.
If I had to describe it, it looks a bit like the enhanced model F4005II tank destroyer designed by the Empire on which the Sun Never Sets in the 1950s (1951).
However, it is only half of the F4005II tank destroyer, which is similar to the turret and barrel being removed separately.
Moreover, its barrel is not round, but rectangular, with larger proportions and longer length.
Xu Chuan curiously looked at the barrel of the rail gun. With his sensitivity to distance, he could easily visually detect that the length of the single barrel was about fifteen meters.
Of course, he saw various detailed data about this rail gun from the email last night.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Strictly speaking, the acceleration track of this rail gun is 13.8 meters long, the total length is 15.55 meters, and the diameter of the barrel reaches an astonishing 400mm.
Although it is impossible for the actual loaded shells to reach this exaggerated value.
But theoretically speaking, this electromagnetic rail gun can accelerate a 175-kilogram solid metal cannon to a maximum speed of 5,000 meters per second, an ultra-high flight speed of approximately Mach 15.
And this speed has surpassed most of the super-high-speed missiles in the world.
For example, Tsarist Russia's "Dagger" hypersonic missile has a speed of Mach 10; the Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile developed by North Korea has a flight speed of Mach 11; and the BrahMos anti-ship missile developed by Asan has a flight speed of Mach 8.
With an ultra-high flight speed of Mach 15, there are currently only a handful of weapons in the world that can reach this speed. It has surpassed most ultra-high-speed missiles.
Therefore, even though the technology of the electromagnetic rail gun is currently limited, and the bullets fired are all solid metal cannons, at such an exaggerated speed, the damage it can cause is no less than that of traditional gunpowder-loaded missiles.
What makes Xu Chuan more regretful is that since the electromagnetic railgun has been fully formed, he cannot see the details inside and the electromagnetic rail made of room-temperature superconducting materials.
However, if you look closely, you can still see a lot of details.
For example, the muzzle of the electromagnetic railgun is not round like other traditional artillery, but a square and rectangular muzzle.
And near the muzzle, there is a circle of sparse small circular openings. I don't know what they are used for.
There also seems to be a condensation pipe arranged on the rectangular barrel to lower the temperature of normal temperature superconducting materials.
Standing next to Xu Chuan, Academician Wang Yong from Chujiang Naval Engineering University introduced with pride: "The Thor electromagnetic rail gun! It means that we have controlled the power of thunder and lightning."
"Judging from the current experimental data, it can fire solid metal cannons ranging from 30 kilograms to 300 kilograms. Taking a 30 kilogram metal shell as an example, the maximum exit speed can reach 6,500 meters per second.
.”
"The solid metal cannon in this range can directly penetrate 40 centimeters thick ordinary carbon steel within 20 kilometers, and can penetrate 25 centimeters thick ordinary carbon steel within 100 kilometers...
.”
"To put it simply, if tungsten-chromium alloy bullets are used, any warship in the world, even an aircraft carrier, will not have the ability to defend against it. It can cause serious damage or even directly penetrate it!"
After a slight pause, Academician Wang Yong's eyes fell on the equipment named "Thor Electromagnetic Railgun", the corners of his mouth slightly raised, and he continued.
"However, directly penetrating the aircraft carrier is not our goal, because penetration will take away a lot of kinetic energy, and it will not pose such a great threat to the aircraft carrier."
"We are currently testing which alloy bullet can maximize the kinetic energy it carries on the receptor target to cause the greatest impact damage."
Listening to Academician Wang Yong's exciting description, Xu Chuan couldn't help but swallow his saliva.
A bullet directly penetrated the aircraft carrier, which is simply unbelievable.
You know, due to the need to defend against torpedo and missile attacks, the underwater part of the aircraft carrier will be thicker than the deck.
Taking the US "Nimitz" class nuclear aircraft carrier as an example, the steel plate thickness of the flight deck is 50 mm, while the thickness of the underwater steel plate generally reaches 150 mm to 230 mm.
Although the performance of steel used in aircraft carriers will far exceed that of ordinary carbon steel plates, the penetration depth of 400 mm is enough to handle most aircraft carriers in the world.
Glancing at the 'Thor Electromagnetic Railgun' in front of him, he looked at Academician Wang Yong with a thoughtful expression and asked:
"If excessive penetration leads to reduced destructiveness, can the rigidity of the material be reduced to delay this problem?"
As we all know, electromagnetic guns currently use solid metal shells.
Even if they have solved the orbital ablation problem of electromagnetic railguns, they cannot apply chemical gunpowder shells to them.
The reason is that the speed of the artillery shell is extremely fast, and the huge instantaneous acceleration makes the reliability and safety of the artillery shell charge fuze face severe tests that are difficult to overcome.
As a result, the electromagnetic gun can only destroy the target by relying on the kinetic energy of high-speed flight, which is detrimental to the damage capability.
Hearing this question, Wang Yong smiled and said: "Penetration will take away a lot of kinetic energy, but it will not pose a great threat to ships or other equipment. It is indeed a problem."
"However, this defect is not impossible to make up for."
Hearing this, Xu Chuan looked over with some curiosity.
Academician Wang Yong smiled slightly and walked towards the location where the electromagnetic railgun shells were stored. He opened a box and revealed a silver-white metal shell inside. He kicked the box with his foot and continued.
"'Active damage element technology', a material synthesis technology researched by a team led by Professor Wang Haifu of Kyungsoo University of Science and Technology, won the second prize of the National Technology Invention Award in 2016, can make up for the shortcomings of solid metal missiles to a certain extent."
"Simply put, this technology is a new type of warhead material preparation technology."
"The materials prepared through this 'active damage element technology' not only have mechanical strength similar to metal, but also contain chemical energy equivalent to high-energy explosives."
"At the same time, it has a similar safety profile to inert materials and can be machined directly."
"So theoretically, this new material will explode only after hitting the target at high speed. It has the dual damage capabilities of kinetic energy puncture and explosion, and the power will be doubled, making it an ideal ammunition for electromagnetic guns."
"Although compared to high-performance traditional explosives, the shells produced by this active damage element technology are not that powerful."
"But compared to pure metal artillery shells, it can cause greater damage to the target."
"And this batch of artillery shells was just delivered from the capital early this morning. It was made temporarily by Professor Wang Haifu and his people."
"You came just in time. We haven't tested it yet. We can take a look at it later."
"Then I'll look forward to it." Xu Chuan responded with a smile, his eyes fell on the box, and he looked at the cannonballs wrapped in cushioning material placed inside.
The silver-white conical cannonball looks like a large bullet.
However, unlike ordinary bullets, its tail has a hood structure unique to some artillery shells, which is used to stabilize the flight attitude.
He is looking forward to it, both for the electromagnetic railgun itself and for the bullets made with new material technology.