The size I saw could fit on the back of a 3 ton flat deck truck. It was the concept and working prototype only though. But it went through 3 inches of armour, type unknown. http://users.tm.net/lapointe/Main.html http://www.oz.net/~coilgun/theory/electroguns.htm http://www.physics.northwestern.edu/cla ... ailgun.htm http://www.powerlabs.org/emguns.htm http://www.onr.navy.mil/fncs/aces/focus ... s_coil.asp
Awesome! The turret design looks very effective, the forward part being a steeply sloped hemisphere like construction. Very low profile too! Looks like a great tank.
Been tracking Black Eagle development for about 4 years now. The pictures, which I also have in a Russian-language magazine, show the mock-up temporary turret, some photos even show that turret on a bog-standard T-80 hull - count the road wheels, 6 for T-80 hull, 7 for BE. Apparently the overall height is to 1.8 metres (although one source claims 0.8 metres lower than T-80U!!), the entire crew in the hull, ie commander and gunner below hull-top level sitting in the basket, with the weapon in a "pod", and bustle-mounted autoloader. No Arena, but Drozhd -damn I like Arena, better all-round coverage. Kaktus-5 or better ERA (effective vs KE as well as CE), including turret top. 135 or 152 mm gun (what chance Leo 2A6 with the L/55 now?), early reports said 152 (which has always been a "traditional" Russian calibre cf KV-2, &c), but are now tending towards 135mm. And the Yanks, Germans and UK have dropped ideas for the 140mm - claiming similar performance can be met with the L/55 (1670 metres/sec on L/44, 1750 m/sec on L/55 for ~10% increase in muzzle energy). Hmm I bet a shift from 125 to 135 gives better than 10%. Oli
Oh, yeah, forgot this one. MBT-killing rail gun. Kirkudbright (MoD) had a 4000 m/sec IIRC running 25 years ago (The Engineer, about July-August 1980). But sat on an LAV? :roll: :lol: Recoil!!! If it's got the muzzle enegy to kill an MBT how are you going to attenuate the recoil an a vehicle as light as LAV? But search through Google for FCS/ Future Combat System. There's some .pdf files kicking about showing concepts for scout vehicles with a six-barrel rotary, three at 25mm, interleaved with 3 at 35mm. Three barrels at a time selected for HE or AP rounds and a V) of 6000 m/sec. And these are serious proposals for the next decade or thereabouts!! Oli In case you want to know, the 4k/sec at Kircudbright was pushing out small diameter projectiles made of Lexan (industrial strength clear plastic used for machinery guards), I think they weighed 4 grammes.