U.S. Navy to Deploy Rail Guns by 2011

Walter Francis writes "The U.S. Navy has apparently been busy. They have been focusing heavily on the next generation of weapons and propulsion systems, including Microwave, Laser, and Electromagnetic-Kinetic weapons, more commonly known as railguns. What specifically surprised me was the fact that the Navy plans to deploy these systems as early as 2011, on their DD(X) frigates. The range of these rail guns is estimated to be over 250 miles."

Suggestion for their autoexec.cfg

[SIGALRM]

name USS Abraham Lincoln
set cl_maxpackets 120
set rate 20000
set snaps 40
set cg_fov 80

If History Is Fulfilled...

[andyrut]

I just know my archnemesis NoobFragger69 will be camping it the moment it's deployed.

Are You Ready? Go!

[American AC in Paris]

What specifically surprised me was the fact that the Navy plans to deploy these systems as early as 2011, on their DD(X) Frigates.

Forget the railguns--I wanna hear more about these Dance Dance Xtreme frigates--sounds like a great way for swabbies to get in shape and destroy the enemy at the same time!

P.S. Linking to PDFs in article summaries makes baby Mozilla cry.

US Navy to Deploy Rail Guns by 2011

[NanoGator]

Great. The next big American stereotype will be that we're all 'faggot campers'.

Haven't you forgotten something, Captain Avatar?

[The I Shing]

Don't forget the Wave Motion Gun!
It's our only hope against Desslok and the Gamalons!
Sing it with me now... "We're off to outer space..."

Plasma

[danoaks15]

Now all they need is a plasma gun and ill join the navy!

Finally!

[Anonymous Coward]

I always thought one of these would come in as a great ending to those retarded Gap ads where everyone is dancing around in front of a white background. There are several points during the dance that they are all in a straight line. DA-DA-DA-DA-DA *FOOOM*.."Impressive"

Arnie..

[cOdEgUru]

In other news, Arnold will take a break from being the Governor of CA and will be test driving this beauty..

Seriously, what better character to fire this weapon than our very own Governator?

Alright you Illegal Aliens..line up.. preferably in a straight line..Hold...

BFG

[Himring]

What? No BFG?... This is the part where I get an "overrated" or "offtopic...."

I love this quote

[Anonymous Coward]

"Our bottom line is that if we can put millions of joules of energy onto a target, something will happen."

Indeed.

Mr Rumsfeld = Dr Evil?

[fluke_finder]

I want ships...ships with freakin lasers!

mmmm

[Anonymous Coward]

~
give all
god
~

Ok lets goto war!!

Re:US Navy to Deploy Rail Guns by 2011

[NanoGator]

"What do you mean, "next" ?"

Click here [reference.com] for more detailed information about your question.

Re:US Navy to Deploy Rail Guns by 2011

[smcavoy]

You wouldn't call firing cruise missles from hundreds of kms away, camping?

Another source, details, not crashing yet

[richardbowers]

Other sites [navyleague.org] are also covering this -- without needing to use acrobat reader.

I can't read the original, but according to the link I'm including, they're not just talking railguns - they're also talking free electron lasers and masers. Now, if only they'd provision a banana-fana-fo-faser, we'd be set.

Re:Range

[Paster Of Muppets]

"... if they miss the target..." Er... US Navy - what do you mean "if"? ;)

I love this quote

[Botunda]

"Our bottom line is that if we can put millions of joules of energy onto a target, something will happen."

Well no shit. Really?

I love my country. I hate what we have let it become

Respawn

[NanoGator]

Well that's neat but I'm still not joining the army until they invent the respawn point.

No

[glrotate]

We're the best.

Re:US Navy to Deploy Rail Guns by 2011

[tunabomber]

... and that's ignoring the fact that the Navy will no doubt be using aimbots.

Kim Jong Il: A headshot from the other side of the map?! WTF?!! OMFG!!! GAY CHEETR!!!

Just wait 'til the Army starts putting their wallhacking radar vision into widespread use...

Re:Respawn

[setzman]

Well that's neat but I'm still not joining the army until they invent the respawn point.

According to the commander in chief and his advisors, there already are two respawn points: heaven and hell. Supposedly allies respawn in heaven, opfor respawn in hell.

Yeah, but...

[LesPaul75]

The range of these rail guns is estimated to be over 250 miles.

Yeah, but at that distance, the enemy will be smaller than a single pixel... you won't even be able to see him behind your little aiming dot.

Weird

[daehrednud]

I deployed rail guns in Quake almost a decade ago.

Re:US Navy to Deploy Rail Guns by 2011

[trentblase]

That would make us camping rocket whores.

Nice improvements!

[Zygote-IC-]

The range of these rail guns is estimated to be over 250 miles.

That is damn impressive! The railgun I used back in the mid 1990s could barely fire all the way across 2fort4!

Re:Haven't you forgotten something, Captain Avatar

[The I Shing]

Yeah, I'd go with Betty, but I'd be thinkin' of Wilma.

I think you mean France

[Anonymous Coward]

Dude... it's only arrogance if you're wrong. So either 1) the U.S. is the most powerful, and thus it's not arrogant to state the truth, or 2) the U.S. says they are the most powerful, yet aren't: arrogant, false visions of grandeur based on the past... nope, that would be *France*.

Re:I love this quote

[telstar]

Can't argue with that logic...

Commercially available

[EssTiDee]

How long till there's a 5 day waiting period and background check to purchase one of these babies for "home defense" or "sporting / hunting" purposes from your local Wal-Mart? Aside from the 250 mile range, it still sounds more sporting than your average assault rifle...

Re:Yes!!!

[Rei]

Don't be silly; our military doesn't kill civilians. If they're killed by our military, they're either "collateral damage" or "enemy combattants". Haven't you ever watched embedded coverage?

Besides, there's no way to really know how many died, so we shouldn't take the effort to count.... [civilians.info]

Re:Suggestion for their autoexec.cfg

[silverfuck]

Original (or as close as I know it) Naval Institute's Proceedings (1989) version:

"Two battleships assigned to the training squadron had been at sea on manoeuvers in heavy weather for several days. I was serving on the lead battleship and was on watch on the bridge as night fell. The visibility was poor with patchy fog, so the Captain remained on the bridge keeping an eye on all activities. Shortly after dark, the lookout on the wing of the bridge reported, "Light, bearing on the starboard bow."
"Is it steady or moving astern?" the Captain called out.
Lookout replied, "Steady, Captain," Which meant we were on a dangerous collision course with that ship.
The Captain then called to the signalman, "Signal that ship: We are on a collisoon course, advise you change course 20 degrees."
Back came the signal "Advisable for you to change course 20 degrees."
In reply, the Captain said, "Send: I'm a captain, change course 20 degrees."
"I'm a seaman second class," Came the reply, "You had better change course 20 degrees."
By that time, the Captain, was furious. He spat out, "Send: I'm a battleship, change course 20 degrees."
Back came the flashing light: "I'm a lighthouse!"

We changed course."

Re:I love this quote

[BabyDave]

A bit excessive - 640kJ should be enough for anyone!
[ducks]

Re:If History Is Fulfilled...

[mrwonton]

Let them see the URL before they click it. Can they do it with HREF? Sure, in an extra couple of steps.

Wait, so, you're saying putting your mouse over the link and looking down before clicking is an extra couple steps then? And I thought I was lazy!

Re:Are You Ready? Go!

[maxbang]

...I wanna hear more about these Dance Dance Xtreme frigates...

I hear their dancing to some kickass tracks laid down by the Party Posse. Yvan eht nioj, hctib.

In other news...

[nacturation]

In other news, the Army plans to deploy Quad Damage by 2009.

Re:To quote the greatest

[maxbang]

Don't get too proud of this technological terror you have constructed. The ability to destroy target from 250 miles is insignificant next to the power of the Force...

in my pants.

Re:Holy crap..

[ifwm]

You've never been to France have you?

The French special forces are highly trained, combat ready personnel. They can retreat faster than any other force on the planet.

Re:Are You Ready? Go!

[another_henry]

As usual the Japanese [jda.go.jp] are way ahead of us.

Re:Arms Race / EMF

[NeoSkandranon]

anybody who can do triangulation with radios will know exactly where they are.

Then what do you plan on doing? Assaulting the carrier battle group that the railgun equipped vessel would be a part of?

Good luck with that.

Re:steel beams from space?

[ElektroHolunder]

Rumor has it that the first draft proposed the use of giant anvils labelled with "ACME"

Re:Are You Ready? Go!

[Anonymous Coward]

And all Japanese people know what happens when baby God^H^H^HMozilla isn't happy.

Re:steel beams from space?

[ifwm]

Spring loaded maybe?

Thank God

[beaverbrother]

I always knew all those late night quake 3 sessions would help me score a job.

Re:Suggestion for their autoexec.cfg

[Ateryx]

Just wait until the Army h4x0rs reality... then those al qaeda n00bs will be pwned.

I can just hear the radio messages:
[GIJOE] we gots a.q. n00bs coming up on the left
[G-Unit] aight i'm campin' w/ rail gun
*G-Unit kills a.qn00bie with headshot*
*G-Unit kills i.h8.4m3r1c4ns with headshot*
[al qaeda pwns] (squiggles with dots) americans hax0rs! (squiggles w/ dots) allah will ban you!11!!11
*G-Unit kills al qaedapwns with headshot*

Re:Luckily this is the US

[kitzilla]

You're just plain unpatriotic, you know. How dare you question our military/industrial complex overlords!

Hey .. you ain't one of those unlawful combatants, are you?

Re:I love this quote

[Jesus_666]

Hmm... A Snickers bar has 1142.28 kJ. So if a railgun would deliver 1 million Joules it had the power of 875.4 Snickers. Or 0.875 kilosnickers.
Come on, that "(kilo|mega)tons of TNT" thing is getting old, but I'd sure like to see a 5 kilosnickers railgun.

Besides, a weapon that sucks millions of joules out of a target would be much better. You could use all that energy to hit a second target or as a fast source of energy (for everyone who needs a few millions of joules of energy in the next 0.2 seconds).

Re:To quote the greatest

[Anonymous Coward]

sigh...stop braggin about your flatulence already

Re:In other news...

[neon-fx]

I can just imagine them blasting targets with these, while some soldier next to them shouts "Double Kill! Multi Kill! RAMPAGE! GODLIKE!"

Re:im no physics expert but wouldnt it be silent?

[Tony Hoyle]

In front of the cannon you'd get a hell of a lot more than a *sonic* shock when the projectile hit you in the face...

Re:Luckily this is the US

[Templaris]

Yeah, but its just a matter of time before the army borrows the railgun technology from the Navy . After that they will come up with the idea of shooting nuclear warheads to get passed enemy radar. Then, they only need to stick it on a tank. Perhaps a walking tank with gears? Perhaps it will be called Metal Gear? A nuclear equipped all-terrain capable walking battle tank.

However, alls the terrorists have to do then is invest in some cigarettes and stinger missiles, perhaps some optical camoflauge as well...

SNAKE!!!!!!!

Re:Haven't you forgotten something, Captain Avatar

[CaptainAvatar]

Only 354 days to save the Earth, what am I doing sitting here reading slashdot??

(Finally, my nick pays off!)

Re:im no physics expert but wouldnt it be silent?

[LPetrazickis]

Therefore, the gun will need a really big "Point Away From Face" sign. I'm talking humongous. Really, really, really, really big lettering. Can't be too safe.:)

Re:recruiting

[E_elven]

Military is also a really good way to get killed. Like, for real. Can't respawn from that.

Re:Bush's moon base.

[rush22]

All your moon base are belong to the U.S.?