Great Country Academician

Chapter 915 Bullets that can penetrate aircraft carriers~

For weapons like electromagnetic railguns, even if you randomly interview an ordinary person on the street, I believe he can tell you a thing or two.

This technology, which is regarded as a "disruptive" weapon in the 21st century, can theoretically launch shells at a speed of more than ten times the speed of sound and a range of more than 300 kilometers.

If it is in a vacuum, its speed can even reach sub-light speed.

So theoretically, it can not only intercept missiles launched by enemy ships and armor, but also be used to destroy low-orbit satellites in outer space, destroy enemy warships, and even aircraft carriers!

Therefore, the electromagnetic railgun, a black technology, became a key research project during the Cold War between the Red and Blue sides in the last century, as well as in the "Star Wars" plan proposed by the United States.

Since the early 1980s, the United States has invested billions of dollars in the development of electromagnetic railguns.

But decades later, Washington still faces three major challenges in this project: energy supply, orbital erosion, and precision guidance. It can be said that there has been almost no progress on the core issues.

So much so that after spending a lot of money, manpower and material resources, and killing the only opponent at that time, Hong Su, the US authorities chose to give up this technology and no longer invest a lot of money in it, and limited it to research by various enterprises or research institutions themselves.

After all, they did not fully expect to develop this black technology when they promoted it and invested money in research and development. More importantly, they attracted the opponent at that time, Hong Su, to invest a lot of resources in the space war.

If it can be developed, everyone will be happy. If it can't be done, as long as Hong Su is dragged down, their goal will be achieved.

And this "black technology" proposed by the United States to deal with Hong Su, when they themselves couldn't complete it, China did it.

Xiangchu, Jiangcheng.

At Chujiang Naval Engineering University, Xu Chuan just got off the car and heard a hearty voice.

"Academician Xu, welcome, welcome, long time no see."

The head of the Navy Equipment Department, Ouyang Zhen, had a smile on his face and strode over.

Xu Chuan greeted him with a smile, stretched out his hand and shook hands with the head of Ouyang Di, saying, "Long time no see, head of Ouyang Di."

Ouyang Zhen smiled and nodded, saying, "Yes, it has been two years since the launching ceremony of the Haixi, time flies so fast."

After exchanging a few pleasantries, he slightly stepped aside and introduced himself with a smile, "Academician Xu, let me introduce you."

"This is Academician Wang Enge from the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and this is Academician Wang Yong from the School of Engineering of the Naval University of Engineering. The electromagnetic railgun technology this time was completed by these two Academicians Wang."

"Academician Wang, long time no see."

Xu Chuan smiled and stretched out his hand to shake hands with the two Academicians Wang, and said hello to each of them.

He knew these two Academicians Wang, but of course, he had only met them once.

The last time Gao Hongming found him and asked him to help solve the magnetic field control problem in the electromagnetic railgun, the two Academicians Wang rushed from Jiangcheng to Jinling the next day.

Academician Wang Enge smiled and shook hands and said, "Yes, it has been more than half a year since we last met in Jinling. The research on the electromagnetic railgun project is thanks to your support."

Xu Chuan smiled and said, "It's just a little theoretical work. The specific research work is still led by you two Academicians Wang. The biggest contribution is you."

Academician Wang Yong shook his head and said, "Insignificant? I think it's the most critical research."

"You know, so many countries and so many research institutes and laboratories in the world are studying this, but so far no one has dared to stand up and say that they have solved the problem of electromagnetic rail ablation."

"Without your mathematical theory, I'm afraid we are still stuck in front of this problem and can't get in."

Xu Chuan smiled and said, "Theory is just theory. It is also a huge problem to transform theory into corresponding mathematical models and tools and apply them to real technology. These are all your hard work."

After a slight pause, he continued, "Let's not talk about this. I heard from Director Ouyang that the electromagnetic railgun technology has been completed and can be loaded on ships?"

Hearing this, the two Academicians Wang couldn't help but smile.

There is no doubt that as the core personnel leading the research, being able to achieve today's major breakthrough in electromagnetic railgun technology is the most proud thing for them.

Nodding with a smile, Academician Wang Yong said: "Let's go, I'll take you to see our latest research results."

Rushing from Jinling to Jiangcheng, Xu Chuan didn't even drink a sip of tea, and followed the two Academicians Wang into the test laboratory of the National Key Laboratory of Electromagnetic Energy Technology.

Of course, he didn't care whether there was a sip of tea or not. Compared with this, the electromagnetic railgun was obviously more attractive.

Following the footsteps of Academician Wang Yong, the group came all the way to the open test site of the laboratory and saw that it was a completed electromagnetic railgun.

From the appearance, this railgun, which represents the extremely high application of the electromagnetic field, is actually a long silver-white pipe connected to a square base, which looks very ordinary.

If you have to describe it, it looks a bit like the enhanced model F4005II tank destroyer designed by the British Empire in the 1950s (1951).

However, it is only half of the F4005II tank destroyer, similar to its turret and barrel being removed separately.

And its barrel is not round, but rectangular, with a larger and longer proportion.

Xu Chuan curiously looked at the barrel of the railgun. With his sensitivity to distance and length, he easily estimated that the length of a single barrel was about 15 meters.

Of course, he saw various detailed data of this railgun in the email last night.

Strictly speaking, the acceleration track of this railgun is 13.8 meters long, the total length is 15.55 meters, and the diameter of the barrel reaches an astonishing 400mm.

Although the actual loaded shells cannot reach this exaggerated value.

But in theory, this electromagnetic railgun can accelerate a 175 kg solid metal cannon to 5,000 meters per second, about 15 Mach's ultra-high flight speed.

And this speed has surpassed most of the world's hypervelocity missiles.

For example, the Russian "Dagger" hypersonic missile has a speed of Mach 10; the Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile developed by North Korea has a flight speed of Mach 11; the BrahMos anti-ship missile developed by India has a flight speed of up to Mach 8.

The ultra-high flight speed of Mach 15, there are only a few weapons in the world that can reach this speed, and it has surpassed most of the hypersonic missiles.

So even if it is currently limited by the technology of electromagnetic railguns, the bullets fired are solid metal cannons, but at such an exaggerated speed, the damage it can cause is not inferior to traditional gunpowder-loaded missiles.

What makes Xu Chuan regretful is that since this electromagnetic railgun has been fully formed, he can't see the details inside and the electromagnetic rails made of room-temperature superconducting materials.

However, if you look closely, you can still see a lot of details.

For example, the muzzle of the electromagnetic railgun is not round like other traditional artillery, but a square rectangular muzzle.

Near the muzzle, there is a circle of sparse circular holes, and I don’t know what they are used for.

There also seems to be a condensation pipe on the rectangular barrel, which is used to lower the temperature of the room-temperature superconducting material.

Standing next to Xu Chuan, Academician Wang Yong of Chujiang Naval University of Engineering proudly introduced: "Thor electromagnetic railgun! It means that we have mastered the power of thunder and lightning."

"According to the current experimental data, it can fire solid metal cannons ranging from 30 kilograms to 300 kilograms. Taking a 30-kilogram metal shell as an example, the maximum muzzle velocity can reach 6,500 meters per second."

"Solid metal cannons in this range can directly penetrate 40-centimeter thick ordinary carbon steel within 20 kilometers, and can penetrate 25-centimeter thick ordinary carbon steel within 100 kilometers."

"In short, if tungsten-chromium alloy bullets are used, any warship in the world, even an aircraft carrier, will not have the ability to defend against it, and it can cause serious damage or even penetrate it directly!"

After a slight pause, Academician Wang Yong's eyes fell on the device named "Thor electromagnetic railgun", and the corners of his mouth slightly raised, and then he said.

"But directly penetrating the aircraft carrier is not our goal, because penetration will take away a lot of kinetic energy, and it will not pose such a big threat to the aircraft carrier."

"We are currently testing which alloy bullet can maximize the kinetic energy it carries on the receptor target to form the greatest impact damage."

Listening to Academician Wang Yong's exciting description, Xu Chuan couldn't help swallowing his saliva.

A bullet directly penetrated the aircraft carrier, which is simply against the sky.

You know, due to the need to defend against torpedo and missile attacks, the underwater part of the aircraft carrier will be thicker than the deck.

Take the US "Nimitz" class nuclear aircraft carrier as an example. The thickness of the steel plate of its flight deck is 50 mm, while the thickness of the steel plate of the underwater part is generally 150 mm to 230 mm.

Although the various properties of steel used in aircraft carriers will far exceed ordinary carbon steel plates, the penetration depth of 400 mm is enough to deal with most aircraft carriers in the world.

After taking a look at the 'Thor Electromagnetic Railgun' in front of him, with a thoughtful look, he looked at Academician Wang Yong and asked:

"If the penetration is too great and the destructiveness is reduced, can the rigidity of the material be reduced to delay this problem?"

As we all know, electromagnetic guns currently use solid metal shells.

Even if they have solved the orbital ablation problem of electromagnetic railguns, they cannot use chemical gunpowder shells on them.

The reason is that the speed of the shells is extremely fast, and the huge instantaneous acceleration makes the reliability and safety of the shell charge fuse face difficult to overcome severe tests.

In this way, the electromagnetic gun can only destroy the target by relying on the kinetic energy of high-speed flight, which is not conducive to the destructive ability.

Hearing this question, Wang Yong smiled and said: "It is indeed a problem that penetration will take away a lot of kinetic energy, but it is not so threatening to ships or other equipment."

"But this defect is not impossible to make up for it."

Hearing this, Xu Chuan looked over with some curiosity.

Academician Wang Yong smiled slightly, walked towards the place where the electromagnetic railgun shells were stored, opened a box, revealing a silver-white metal shell inside, kicked the box with his foot, and continued.

"'Active damage element technology', a material synthesis technology researched by a team led by Professor Wang Haifu of Kyungsoo University of Science and Technology, won the second prize of the National Technology Invention Award in 2016, can make up for the shortcomings of physical metal missiles to a certain extent."

"Simply put, this technology is a new type of warhead material preparation technology."

"The materials prepared through this 'active damage element technology' not only have mechanical strength similar to metal, but also contain chemical energy equivalent to high-energy explosives."

"At the same time, it offers similar safety to inert materials and can be machined directly."

"So theoretically, this new material will explode only after hitting the target at high speed. It has the dual damage capabilities of kinetic energy puncture and explosion, and the power will be doubled, making it an ideal ammunition for electromagnetic guns."

"Although compared to high-performance traditional explosives, the shells produced by this active damage element technology are not that powerful."

"But compared to pure metal artillery shells, it can cause greater damage to the target."

"And this batch of artillery shells was just delivered from the capital early this morning. It was made temporarily by Professor Wang Haifu and his people."

"You came just in time. We haven't tested it yet. We can take a look at it later."

"Then I'll look forward to it." Xu Chuan responded with a smile, his eyes fell on the box, and he looked at the cannonballs wrapped in cushioning material placed inside.

The silver-white conical cannonball looks like a large bullet.

However, unlike ordinary bullets, its tail has a hood structure unique to some artillery shells, which is used to stabilize the flight attitude.

He is looking forward to both the electromagnetic railgun itself and the bullets prepared with new material technology.