michaelgemar, 7 months ago

@nyrath Encouraging — I hope the US decides to piggy-back on this to make up for the cancellation of their own program.

swope, 7 months ago

@nyrath the photos are cropped so you can't see that this is a rifle attached to the firearm of a giant robot.

DenOfEarth, 7 months ago

@nyrath

I wonder if the railgun projectiles are also spun up for a rifling effect, adding gyroscopic stability over some distance, or whether the energy at which these are fired makes it both unfeasible and unnecessary?

nyrath, 7 months ago

@DenOfEarth

I'm not sure, but I think the railgun mechanism makes it unfeasible to spin the projectiles. That might also make the sabots spin off in directions that could damage the railgun.

DenOfEarth, 7 months ago

@nyrath oh good point 👍

PTR_K, 7 months ago

@nyrath @DenOfEarth
I'm not super-familiar with the technology, but vaguely aware that various air gun pellet shapes are supposed to be self stabilizing. Maybe some projectile configurations might have similar properties at railgun sizes and speeds?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pellet_(air_gun)

Hcobb, 7 months ago

@DenOfEarth @nyrath Note that conventional explosives launched long dart penetrators have too much length to width to be stable under spin and hence are finned.