Chinese Outflank US Navy, Develop First Railgun for Ready for Warships

The United States has been looking into railguns as weapons for decades now. The first serious push was during Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (aka the Star Wars program). These were meant for shooting down incoming ICBMs and the like. Most of the SDI program was shelved at the end of the Cold War. The US Army was interested in railguns for a time and contracted to see if they could place them in tanks. The pulsed power systems turned out to be a bit much during the 90s. Most recently, the US Navy has been working on them for use on warships.

The US Navy project has been going on for over a decade. The problem (recently) has been the Navy's very hot and cold attitude to the project. Some officers seem to be rather gungho and pour money into the project. Then either the officers change, or something happens and as recently as december, the US Navy was talking about cancelling the project in favor of using the shells developed in regular guns. According to original plans, the US Navy was going to place a railgun on a ship this year to test fire. That was shelved.

And then...

In January, a Chinese ship was spotted with a railgun in a turret, preparing doing the exact test the US had planned. The Naval Brass stated they were concerned and monitoring the situation. This morning, information was leaked to CNBC:

China is currently testing the world's most powerful naval gun and people with direct knowledge of a U.S. intelligence report say it will be ready for war by 2025.

www.cnbc.com...

The Chinese got serious and started their project in 2011. There were rumors they were, but that they were suffering from material science problems much like what's been happening with their jet engines. Apparently, that was wildly inaccurate.

The Chinese railguns are more powerful than the American ones: Mach 7 vs Mach 5. Their rounds are significantly cheaper, too: $50k/round vs $86k/round. The Chinese railgun, unless the US Navy brass gets their collective heads out of their diamond producing nether regions, will be fielded at least 4 years prior to the US. Additionally, the Chinese are adding tonnage to their fleet far, far faster than the US Navy is:

www.thedrive.com...

This is a Dreadnought moment, folks. When the HMS Dreadnought launched, all previous battleships were obsolete. The first ship launched with an operational railgun is almost guaranteed at this point to be Chinese.

All because of our collective American arrogance.

we have these

a reply to: anzha

I think you're putting too much stock into rail guns when MW laser weapons and other directed energy weapons are what the US is looking at.

a reply to: projectvxn

I've worked on the lasers. The lasers won't stop this. Neither will a CIWS.

This is more like a big chunk of metal. Think inert cannonball.

a reply to: anzha

And the US has like 15 modern aircraft carrier to China's 2.

The US would wipe the floor with China's navy. Not boasting just the truth

Most probably they stole the plans from the US Navy... mmh! wonder if they pulled a Leonardo bait & switch design

a reply to: JDmOKI

Actually, we have 10 carriers. They have two currently, but are launching their third and starting their 4th. We have 9 LHD/LHA, but the Chinese are completing their first.

And they build them much, much faster.

a reply to: JDmOKI

and a rail gun can tear a ship in half if given the right aim and enough velocity long before the chance to return fire. Those 15 carriers could be reduced to less than 10 before the Chinese could be neutralized.

Never underestimate your adversary

a reply to: anzha

No talking about CIWS.

Not suggesting lasers will be used to counter railguns.

I'm saying that railguns have a very specific use. Hell, railguns would be more useful in space than on Earth.

As far as offensive capability is concerned, they're good for long range attacks, OTH artillery, and other applications.

But they aren't the Dreadnought just yet.

I would also caution against taking China at their word with regard to railguns.

a reply to: anzha


This is somewhat concerning considering how powerful a rail gun can be.
I had a buddy that built a small one in his barn a few years back for a collage project. It was very weak but even that small a amount of power it had it was very powerful. He put concrete into the middle of a hay barrel about 300 yards away and blew a clean hole through it. Also that sound it made was very unique. I will never forget it.
More on topic though the Chinese are very VERY good at fast tracking projects to the point it is scary. Luckily I am not scared of them. They would rather beat the US through political and economic means. And to be honest they seem to have that down pretty well.

a reply to: WarPig1939

I'll take proven navy over a navy with stolen tech any day but yes the art of war is deception and understanding your enemy.

You all seem to think that navies around the world still fight like they did during WW1......line up within gun range and shoot each other to death.

They don't.

Fleets tend to stay well away from each other and use both aircraft and missiles to strike at each other. Gun systems (rail systems and lasers) are for trying to take down those aircraft and missiles.

Then of course you have the whole sub navy.......kind of hard to use a rail gun against a sub that is safely submerged and using both torps and anti-ship cruise missiles.

a reply to: eriktheawful

When was the last modern navel battle fter WW2?

originally posted by: JDmOKI
a reply to: eriktheawful

When was the last modern navel battle fter WW2?

I wouldn’t necessarily call this one a battle but it definitely served a purpose if you look at the training aspect that can be learned.
Cuban missile crisis.

a reply to: eriktheawful

That's just it. This is the sort of tech that will change how navies fight. Coupled with lasers for missile defense (and dont think the Chinese haven't been working on those, too), you can probably close to killing distance on any surface ship short of a carrier (nuclear power has its advantages...)

To be sure, subs can still kill this. OTOH, subs can't project power.

originally posted by: JDmOKI
a reply to: WarPig1939

I'll take proven navy over a navy with stolen tech any day but yes the art of war is deception and understanding your enemy.

Of course the proven navy would win. It won't be as easy as the battlefield models say. Each year that winning edge drops when China puts out more and more warships on the table. I just hope the US and China can come to an understanding before China gets on equal footing.

originally posted by: Allaroundyou
a reply to: anzha


This is somewhat concerning considering how powerful a rail gun can be.
I had a buddy that built a small one in his barn a few years back for a collage project. It was very weak but even that small a amount of power it had it was very powerful. He put concrete into the middle of a hay barrel about 300 yards away and blew a clean hole through it. Also that sound it made was very unique. I will never forget it.
More on topic though the Chinese are very VERY good at fast tracking projects to the point it is scary. Luckily I am not scared of them. They would rather beat the US through political and economic means. And to be honest they seem to have that down pretty well.

If china tried to collapse the US economy (and they're getting there, they could do it now), I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to be in a full military combat situation with them overnight. Then we'd be at war with them, and this would be a problem.

These are essentially land-based rods-from-god. I wonder what one of these hits would do to a city block. The range on these things is incredible- it won't be long before they'll be able to take out ships they don't even have line-of-sight on. Targets hiding behind the water via the curvature of the earth.

a reply to: anzha

Not really.

A rail gun is still a gun. It just moves it's projectile using electromagnatisim instead of with gun powder. It's purpose is still the same: shoot down incoming aircraft and missiles.

The way modern navies fight is the same with or without rail guns. The only thing that rail guns do for you is remove the need for powder charges to shoot.

Being ex-US Navy I can tell you that a enemy with a rail gun does not scare me. I'm on a ship, not an aircraft.

A enemy with an anti-ship missile on the other had would be cause for concern for me.

Railguns are great for long-range artillery, but they are not my main concern when it comes to China and our Carriers.
We should be more concerned with the DF-21, and I believe these are already tested and in service?

Granted, if it ever came to a true China vs US conflict... none of these weapons really matter. When it comes to any of the major nuclear powers, any of these countries could always just choose to flip the table, a couple EMPs/mushroom clouds later, and the whole world gets to try restarting from the caveman days.

~Winter

a reply to: lordcomac

This type of thing is not my strong point by any means. But I would imagine that a rail gun most likely would be wasted of use if it was a city block. Little collateral damage so unless the target was a very specific one what would be the point?
I am nor sure how accurate they have these weapons but my friends was pretty accurate at a somewhat short distance. A military installation would be most likely the one that would take the damage, not the surrounding population.