"The Gauss Gun" Topic

"Combat in science fiction is often fought with a variety of weaponry. Everything from plasma rifles in a 40 watt range to mythical laser swords. But, what realistic weapons will our soldiers of the future be using? Many wrongly assumed that combat in the 21st century would be fought with laser blasters and nuclear weapons. However, the majority of weapons on the battlefield are the same or very similar to weapons used forty years ago. Besides the familiar laser blaster, there are weapons based on propelling sabots via magnetic fields. These are nothing new in the realm of Sci-Fi, and continue to day to appear in sci-fi works, but the difference, is that military organization and companies are spending major R&D dollars to bring these weapons of the future into today. Often authors have featured Gauss guns, but often mix up the Gauss gun with the Rail gun. Per the mission statement of FWS, we are going to try to clear things up with the Gauss gun and exploring how a future military organization might deploy such a weapon. On a personal note, out of all kinetic energy weapons (KEW) systems, and the Gauss gun is my favorite.

What is a Gauss Gun?

First off, Gauss guns go by many name: Mass Drivers (much
larger, used for space transportation), Centipede Gun, Magnetic Ladder Gun and if superconductive, a Quench Gun. The name Gauss is named for Carl Friedrich Gauss, who developed the math behind the use of magnetics for acceleration around the 1830's. However, real credit should belong to Kristian Birkeland, who attempted to develop magnetic weapon around 1900. The basic operation of a Gauss gun seems simple enough…a ferromagnetic slug is push/pulled through a series of staged charged Magnetic coils.When the slug reaches the middle of the coil, it is switched off, and the next coil powers on to pull the slug down the barrel, this is known as switching. The slug will increase speed during this push/pull, and depend on the number coils, called stages…"

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Armand

Forgotten Weapons has had a few programs about Gauss weapons this year. Here is one:

youtu.be/crBqplCIZoA

It's my understanding that the first use of the terms "Gauss pistol" and "Gauss rifle" was in Traveller when it was published in about 1977, but it is possible that Traveller was just a major popularizer.

Amusingly, despite centuries of speculation and real-world effort to perfect Gauss/Coil Guns, and a half century or so poo-pooing lasers, which system has actually been applied in the field in recent years? :)

However, Gauss and other electromagnetic accelerator weapons have many advantages over conventional chemical propellant arms: One of which is variability of muzzle velocity. A selling point that one manufacturer working in the area has used for its projects for police arms is that the same weapon, with adjustable power outputs, can deliver a projectile as speeds designed to stun, wound or kill depending on requirements.

Also, a variety of ammunition might also be fired from a single arm – "Beanbag" rounds, gas canisters, and rubber bullets, and at a variety of distances but with the same impact, with a simple change in the power input to the coils.

And all without carrying hazardous munitions with explosive charges within them, saving weight and lowering risk.

Hence, all the work being done.

Thanks.

Armand

Power density, pure old recoil, and electro-magnetic field exposure are big challenges for man or AFV portable electrical KE weapons. These things are well suited to artillery, naval and space gun applications where you have space for energy generation, storage, and mass to react the recoil. Chemical weapons are going to be with us for a long time – it is too easy to safely package propellant and warhead chemical energy for these to go away. I don't agree that the stored electrical energy is less hazardous than chemical weapons from both an electrical safety and pure energy release perspectives. You wouldn't want to take a hit in your capacitor bank when charging for a shot or release all that explosive electrical energy in a misfire into a man, AFV, or vessel. It would look look a Marvel movie special affect or a DeLorean at 1.21 Gigawatts.

Thanks also…

Armand

My, inexpert, understanding is that to power an electromagnetic weapon the size of a tank you need a power source the size of an aircraft carrier. It just isn't feasable today.