The answer to that probably has something to do with the production costs of materials that can withstand repeated exposure to such current\heat and still be able to fire smoothly.
Here's the straight skinny on the RG from the lab, without the brain-dead filtration by the newsies.http://www.onr.navy.mil/emrg/electromagnetic-railgun.aspIt's been in development quite a while. Getting it down to a deployable weapon from a research tool is the key.In this test 2520 Meters/sec. muzzle velocity = Mach 7.6 or 8267 feet/sec.10.6 MJ is only 2.94 kilowatt-hours but the peak power and power density in the weapon leads to intense temperatures in the bore. You have to have mass in the weapon to dissipate the heat and to survive the kickback. (Not a good handheld weapon.) Newton's laws still apply. (F = ma = d(mv)/dt) The mass of the projectile was 3.520 kg according to the video. You need to know the length of the rifle to know the acceleration but it looks about 3 meters long. 3/2520 = 0.00119 secs or 1.19 milliseconds to go from 0 to muzzle velocity. 3.52 kg x 2520 m/s / 0.00119 s = 7454117.6 kg-m/s^2 (Newtons) or about 1.676 million pounds. Quite a kick.You might have a nice K.E. weapon as a "needler" from SciFi novels. Something low mass like a 10mg needle at those speeds would do some damage. You might be able to create a rifle with a backpack power supply but then you would need another soldier to carry all the other gear they both would need. Great if you are sniper team. From the paper, reading between the lines, it looks like the big techno hurdles are pulse generator design and material science on the projectiles and the bore. The intense heat and friction makes for some awesome erosion, I would imagine. Another factor would be moving all the air in front of the projectile out of the muzzle. That's why it's got such a huge muzzle flare. That's all just ionized gasses from the displaced air.
people have already made homemade handheld coilguns (gauss) which have quite a bit of power considering how they were made. theres a few vids on youtube about this. it really wouldnt be that hard to make a handheld railgun like the one in quake 2 with the right power source
I happen to have one in my pants at this very moment.... cool huh?
Quote from: UUD-40 on February 09, 2008, 06:52:44 PMI happen to have one in my pants at this very moment.... cool huh? Hook it up.
Quote from: jägermonsta on February 11, 2008, 05:27:32 AMQuote from: UUD-40 on February 09, 2008, 06:52:44 PMI happen to have one in my pants at this very moment.... cool huh? Hook it up.any time babe!