PRC/PLAN Laser and Rail Gun Development Thread

recent naysaying
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It looks like China will beat the US Navy in the railgun race — here’s why it doesn’t actually matter
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  • Chinese state media recently revealed that China will "soon" arm warships with electromagnetic railguns, a much-hyped technology that's of questionable use to a military.
  • This would certainly be a noteworthy technological feat for China, but it would be militarily insignificant, experts told Business Insider.
  • An operational railgun would likely bring very little to the table militarily, but it would advance the narrative that China is a formidable rising power with the ability to develop next-generation weaponry.
 

Biscuits

Major
Registered Member
Article fails to mention that the ship isn't going to be exclusively armed with a railgun. The 055 is no fire support barge, incapable of weathering even rough seas. It's a full warship with cutting edge radar and a new family of anti-ship and anti-land systems. Railgun rounds would supplement YJ-12 supersonic missiles, YJ-18 sea skimmers and non monkey model versions of the CM401 in a coordinated attack.

Also it would have applications for China's frigates and/or smaller destroyers in order to free up space by replacing CJ-10 in a land strike role.
 
Article fails to mention that the ship isn't going to be exclusively armed with a railgun. The 055 is no fire support barge, incapable of weathering even rough seas. It's a full warship with cutting edge radar and a new family of anti-ship and anti-land systems. Railgun rounds would supplement YJ-12 supersonic missiles, YJ-18 sea skimmers and non monkey model versions of the CM401 in a coordinated attack.

Also it would have applications for China's frigates and/or smaller destroyers in order to free up space by replacing CJ-10 in a land strike role.
you may ask yourself a question if machinery/fuel spaces to generate power for a railgun are

lower or higher

than of what you perceive as "free up space"?

by the way the Yangtze River Cabin is not that small itself LOL Aug 4, 2018
almost forgot about the Yangtze River Cabin ...
Clipboard402.jpg

how is it doing?
 

Biscuits

Major
Registered Member
you may ask yourself a question if machinery/fuel spaces to generate power for a railgun are

lower or higher

than of what you perceive as "free up space"?

by the way the Yangtze River Cabin is not that small itself LOL Aug 4, 2018

It's a Type 072 LST. It's not designed to generate a lot power and displaces 7000 tons.

The gun would certainly have to be made in a lower calibre to fit a 054. 052s are a bit larger than 072s, fitting shouldn't be a problem.

Railgun presumably fits into the "slot" for the gun on the ship, so it's machinery only extends downwards. The "free up space" referred to here is VLS cells able to bring YJ-18s/12s/HQ-9s instead of CJ-10s for land attack missions.

072s were built to transit open seas and we have good photos of this particular one as a testing platform somewhere on the high seas. I'm confused to what you mean by "river cabin", is it just because the 072 has transited the Yangtze for R&R? Do you also call the Zumwalt "Panama river cabin" because it has transited the Panama river (rather unsuccesfully, I might add)?
 

Bhurki

Junior Member
Registered Member
you may ask yourself a question if machinery/fuel spaces to generate power for a railgun are

lower or higher

than of what you perceive as "free up space"?

by the way the Yangtze River Cabin is not that small itself LOL Aug 4, 2018
Machinery/fuel spaces to generate power basically require two elements ---
1)DC power source/AC + alternator - This would likely be provided by IEPS on a non prototype ship like the type 055A/052E(?), so no extra space required local to firing system,
whereas in the current prototype 072,we can expect the areas that normally hold vehicles to have been converted into areas containing extra electricity generation systems (diesel generators/auxillary power)
2) Capacitors/ Compulsator system - This is probably what needs space to be placed locally to firing system, however the arrangement of this system can be quite flexible as it isnt a single item with rigid dimensions but a series of components that can be connected in a loosely coupled manner.
In other words it can be integrated close to the reload system with flexible constraints on required dimensions.
Also i believe the meaning of freeing up space isnt literally in terms of de-allocating physical space but notion of realloting the vls to different roles.
 

Jiang ZeminFanboy

Senior Member
Registered Member
I wonder if in the future, we will see long range railgun artillery, e.g. land based artillery in Fujian could bomb the coast of Taiwan.
 

Bhurki

Junior Member
Registered Member
typical:
  1. Railgun or anything for the matter will give the US a generation edge over other countries.
  2. Railgun or anything for the matter will be useless if they are made by China.
Another demonstration that "democratic" 1+1 does not equate to "authoritarian" 1+1.
Building consensus holds higher priority to them then examining and agreeing on facts.
Either the consensus and facts line up, or they go on a rant to skew the fact into their own notion.
 
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