海上自衛隊：軌道炮海上射擊成功
-世界上第一艘配備電磁砲的船艦-
-攔截「高超音速飛彈」-
我們為您帶來汽車新聞摘要。
Japan Defense Equipment Agency:
On Tuesday, October 17, 2023, the world’s first ship was equipped with a railgun.
In cooperation with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, an offshore firing test was conducted.
Video released on official X:
The Defense Equipment Agency has released a video of an offshore firing test on Official X (formerly Twitter).
Regarding ships equipped with railguns, nothing was disclosed.
What is a railgun:
A gun that fires bullets using electrical energy. Also called an “electromagnetic gun.”
This greatly increases the initial velocity of the bullet compared to conventional guns that use gunpowder.
The bullet has the advantage of being small and difficult to detect.
Defense Equipment Agency:
In December 2022, the “Defense Power Development Plan” was released.
We will continue our research on railguns in the future.
Research expenses of 23.8 billion yen will be included in next year’s budget.
Intercepting “hypersonic guided missiles”:
Railguns intercept “hypersonic guided missiles” and other missiles.
It is used as a means of striking that is difficult to evade against “air defense, ships, and ground targets.”
Proven with small caliber railgun:
This time, we acquired test data using a small-caliber railgun.
It is expected that a medium-caliber railgun will be developed in the future.
Japanese railgun research
Japan is proceeding with research into railguns, conducting research prototypes and in-house tests.
Achieve the following goals in “Future Railgun Research”.
① Energy efficiency technology
Lowers the “total electrical energy required for high initial velocity.”
Achieving “high energy efficiency” by “optimizing discharge patterns and circuit design.”
② Railgun rapid fire technology
Aiming to speed up the shooting sequence.
Achieves high-speed continuous fire with loading unique to railguns, such as ‘multi-stage’.
③ Extra-gun trajectory/terminal effect technology
In order to give the final effect to the target, we analyze the destruction phenomenon due to bullet structure and residual velocity.
Measure the required landing speed.
In order to prevent a decrease in remaining speed, calculate the ‘stability and trajectory during hypersonic flight’.
Achieve optimal air defense and attack with a railgun.
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/6506d1a49227676938d0273116e990b6794cf30b
1. Machine gun currently being tested (voices from Japanese net users)
40mm machine gun class shells:
It is a 40mm machine gun class, which is equivalent to a short-range air defense weapon.
Large-caliber long-range guns require enormous amounts of power.
155mm machine gun class shells:
Just firing a railgun uses half the power of an Aegis ship.
Unless it is a nuclear-powered ship, it will not be able to provide sufficient electricity.
2. US Navy withdraws: (Voices from Japanese netizens)
The U.S. Navy has temporarily discontinued it (although it seems that it has not been completely discontinued).
The ” prototype gun with a muzzle initial velocity of 2500 m/s” could not meet the “long life of the gun barrel due to severe wear”.
The company effectively withdrew from railgun development.
Japan is steadily developing:
With groundbreaking technological innovation, it should be able to turn into an amazing weapon.
Japan carried out steady development and first put it into practical use in the machine gun class.
3. The biggest problem is power supply (voices from Japanese internet users)
Integrated electric propulsion increases the ship’s overall power generation capacity.
However, the burden of “power consumption for the propulsion system and C4ISR” is also large.
How much surplus power can be secured for the railgun?
Even if a power capacitor is used together, isn’t the continuous fire ability limited?
4. Capturing hypersonic variable speed orbital warhead: (Voices from Japanese net users)
The fire control system ensures that the enemy’s warheads that are rushing at Mach 5 to 10 are hit.
The bullet speed needs to exceed that, 4000m/s (Mach 11).
5. Railgun barrel life: (Voices from Japanese netizens)
The biggest weak point of electromagnetic guns is ‘barrel life, which is a tradeoff between high initial velocity’.
It is important to reduce ‘damage to the electrode built into the gun barrel’.
Barrel life reduction problem:
The initial velocity of a railgun is several times higher than that of a conventional gunpowder type.
Even if the cooling surface is improved, it is inevitable that the life of the gun barrel will be reduced.
The cost of manufacturing the gun barrel and the hassle of replacing the barrel cannot be ignored.