Comment on Japan shows off futuristic 'railgun' at defence expo
knightly@pawb.social 2 weeks agoDoubtful, given that they are ridiculously expensive and can only manage a handfull of shots before the railgun rails burn out. The GAO says that military laser weapons still cost somewhere between $1 and $10 per shot, making them 2 to 20 times more expensive than regular bullets.
untakenusername@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
for the railgun the economics might not be favorable but
Bullets that can achieve the same amount of damage as the equivalent laser shot?
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
There are bullets and bullets. A 35mm flakpanzer round is very much not the same cost as a 9mm bullet from a random handgun.
Similarly, there are lasers and lasers. A 30kW laser like being tested in 2015 is nowhere near the 300 kW monsters like HELCAP meant for missile defence.
To compare, 300kW laser delivers 300.000 joules on target every second. Now, granted, that “target” might be a circle bigger than your actual target, but then, bullets can also miss. A 20mm solid bullet from a Phalanx CIWS delivers some 60.000 joules on target per hit.
knightly@pawb.social 2 weeks ago
And then some, of course. The advantage of energy weapons is the speed of light, but they have negligible kinetic energy and zero penetration, relying on surface heating to cause damage. It typically takes them several seconds on target to knock out a drone, and even longer on missiles designed for hypersonic flight.
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Once you’re talking hundreds of kilowatts of average power (usually pulsed in much shorter increments) you’re not really talking about “surface heating” but more about “metal instantly vaporizes” if you focus that beam on target.