US Navy's Mach 8 Rail Gun

[pacman1]

Thought this was quite interesting, but how would you control accuracy?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fzEzOlW1uM

More here, cool site too..
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/12/video-navy...

Then I got to thinking, this technology would be well suited for aircraft carrier launches, slightly slower of course!

Well, seems they've already thought of that!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euLsg_viWW0

[Sonic]

That's pretty cool tech, cheers for the links.

[caz4213]

This sort of thing always boggles my mind. Even better / worse depending on your persuasion as far as these things go is if this is what they ADMIT to building, what sort of weapons have they got in development...

[davepoth]

Much more accurate than a normal gun I believe - less wind affected since it's going so quick.

The catapult system would be the one we'd have on our new carrier(s) if we have it fitted because they don't have the capability to make steam.

[Robb F]

Similar to how the magnetic bullet trains work in Japan.

[anonymous-user]

davepoth said:

Much more accurate than a normal gun I believe - less wind affected since it's going so quick.

The catapult system would be the one we'd have on our new carrier(s) if we have it fitted because they don't have the capability to make steam.

Yep, it is a different world at Mach 8.

[tontoro]

Robb F said:

Similar to how the magnetic bullet trains work in Japan.

China