From 1987 - Kaman Aerospace Corp. tank destroyer with electromagnetic gun.

[sferrin]

Design used a coil gun rather than a railgun.

 

[flateric]

With Star Wars project running in full, you always think where you can use these tech on Earth...coilgun MBT was thought to be a nice idea those years.

Source: Inernational Combat Arms

 

[r16]

when ı attempt to make a joke , it is hard on the recipients but with the kind of the barrel in the second picture you can definitely reach hostile capitals from your border , without firing .

 

[Triton]

Do railgun/coilgun-armed main battle tanks require large amounts of electricity? How can this idea be practical in an MBT?

 

[Lauge]

Do railgun/coilgun-armed main battle tanks require large amounts of electricity? How can this idea be practical in an MBT?

Not "large" amounts of electricity....more like absolute hu-fu*****-mongous amounts of electricity

As I understand it though, the main issue with railguns is not generating the energy, but rather the power levels (i.e. energy pr. unit time), that is, to deliver the energy to the gun quickly enough. We can, of course, always hope that the Japanese will come up with a superconductor that works at desert temperatures.

To say nothing of the EMP that would be generated when firing one of those babies.... ;D

Regards & all

Thomas L. Nielsen
Denmark

 

[RP1]

Regarding energy - my quick calculations get about 7MJ muzzle energy for a Russian 3BM-42M APFSDS penetrator. Assuming some overall efficiency of 50% that;s 14MJ, which can be supplied over 10 seconds by a 1.4MW power plant. According to Wikipedia the M-1 powerplant is just over 1.1MW...

RP1

 

[vajt]

Source: Inernational Combat Arms

This was a great magazine. Too bad it was cancelled years ago and no similar replacement has been made.

-----JT-----

 

[sferrin]

Regarding energy - my quick calculations get about 7MJ muzzle energy for a Russian 3BM-42M APFSDS penetrator. Assuming some overall efficiency of 50% that;s 14MJ, which can be supplied over 10 seconds by a 1.4MW power plant. According to Wikipedia the M-1 powerplant is just over 1.1MW...

RP1

http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,3364.0.html

Also



http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,4537.0.html

Reply #4

 

[RP1]

Interesting, but but but... I wasn't saying that railguns were impossible - quite the opposite. Offhand, ISTR that a Eurodyn GTA set will happily pump out 3.6MW and it's probably not much bigger than a tank power pack.

RE the Wright machine - that appears to be the generator itself, not the prime mover.

RP1

 

[flateric]

Add-on: second pic (square gun) is not Kaman's, it's UK RARDE (Royal Armament Research Development Establishment) rail gun concept.

 

[mz]

Do railgun/coilgun-armed main battle tanks require large amounts of electricity? How can this idea be practical in an MBT?

Not "large" amounts of electricity....more like absolute hu-fu*****-mongous amounts of electricity

As I understand it though, the main issue with railguns is not generating the energy, but rather the power levels (i.e. energy pr. unit time), that is, to deliver the energy to the gun quickly enough. We can, of course, always hope that the Japanese will come up with a superconductor that works at desert temperatures.

To say nothing of the EMP that would be generated when firing one of those babies.... ;D

Regards & all

Thomas L. Nielsen
Denmark

AFAIK only capacitors can supply enough electric energy at an instant for something like that. And they are not very mass efficient. Usually stationary railguns etc require huge capacitor banks.
So you need
1) A power source (tank engine) and fuel for it (diesel/gasoline)
2) A generator
3) A capacitor bank

Storing the energy chemically is much nicer in so many ways, like in conventional guns. It is directly transferable to pressure which is then changed to kinetic energy.

 

[moin1900]

Google Books

ARMY
JULY 1987
VOLUME 37, No.7
PAGE: 28 - 34
"Electromagnetic Guns : Beyond Hypervelocity"
- KAMAN FUTURE COMBAT VEHICLE
- FMC MLRS CHASSIS TEST BED WITH 9-MJ ELECTROMAGNETIC RAIL GUN
- FMC TANK WITH 15-MJ ELECTROMAGNETIC GUN

POPULAR SCIENCE
NOVEMBER 1994
PAGE: 32
- FUTURE TANK WITH RAIL GUN