Does the US Navy want Polywell in order to power rail guns?

[wdfarmer]

The AP is splashing this news today about deployment of laser weapons and rail guns: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/us-navy- ... r-1st-time

So, are rail guns the biggest reason the Navy wants Polywell power on board?

[GIThruster]

Probably not. The AW4 reactors furnish plenty of power for the Ford class and other fission reactors can do the same. The Ford class already has vastly more electrical production than the Nimitz does, and the Ford was designed to mount lasers in the future that use huge amounts of electrical power. Furthermore the advent of superconducting generators and Supercritial CO2 turbines will undoubtably raise the level of power production even on the older classes like the Nimitz. The CO2 turbines convert almost twice as much thermal to electric if memory serves, and certainly will be fitted to both future and existing vessels.

[ladajo]

The problem is not generation in legacy units. That can be upped. The problem is distribution. That would require essentially a platform rebuild.
Lasers are okay.
Small railguns probably okay on larger units. Will require a pulse gen setup of somekind. And that takes space.

Big railguns will be on purpose built. You will see testing on a test platform like an old amphib or something is my best bet. We keep a DD around for that, but I do not think it could handle the power mods unless they put external generation in deck mounted containers.

Sooner rather than later the other guys are going to be going "oh shit, now what?"
These are game changer once deployed. They change a lot in how we will fight, as well as bring new fight to the board.

[GIThruster]

These are game changer once deployed. They change a lot in how we will fight, as well as bring new fight to the board.

I think the 64 MJ weapon proposed would have a 220 nm range and greater destruction than a Tomahawk. Fire that 10X/minute at a small installation. Game changer indeed!

[ladajo]

The NGFS piece is huge. A complete change in relevance for the better. Not only hitting power, but Time Sensitive servicing as well.

Outside of that the entire view of ASuW and AW will change as well.

A large bit for wider force implications IMO is reduction of sustainment requirements and system load for explosives.
Units with rail gun will upfront see a doubling in magazine capacity, and ten to twenty times the ranging.

Sensors will not keep up initially with ranging capability. This is a common theme though with step change improvements in ordnance historically.

[williatw]

Capt. Kirk Takes Command Of Hot New Ship -- Really! USS Zumwalt Sails


WASHINGTON: To boldly go in a revolutionary ship where no one has commanded before. Why the clumsy Star Trek reference? Because the Navy’s newest, stealthy, most radical ship, the USS Zumwalt, will be commanded by the fabulously named Capt. James A. Kirk. The Navy couldn’t make something like this up, could they?



The Zumwalt, launched on Monday, contains a plethora of new weapons, a radical power plant and a controversial new hull design designed to reduce its radar signature. And it really is commanded by Capt. James A. Kirk. As aficionados of the original Star Trek series know, the full name of the USS Enterprise’s commander was James Tiberius Kirk, so there should be no mistaking the two men.

How important is the first of the three Zumwalt-class ships to the US Navy? One of America’s preeminent naval experts, Norm Polmar, put it simply:


“The Zumwalt introduces new hull form and machinery concepts that could be the harbinger of the next generation of surface warships. In some respects the advancements are comparable to the Monitor of Civil War fame that revolutionized naval ship design.”

One of the country’s top defense lawmakers, Rep. Randy Forbes, tells us the Zumwalt and her sister ships “are poised to define surface ship design for years to come. It is game-changing technologies like those found on the Zumwalt-class that will enable the Navy’s future dominance in the decades ahead.”

What makes the ship so powerful a tool? Polmar says “the ship is the perfect platform for deployment of rail guns and laser weapons because of her electric-oriented power plant.” That advanced power plant provides much more power — up to 78 megawatts of power, enough to power about 47,000 American homes — that can be used by weapons than existing non-nuclear ships. While it was originally designed to provide land attack support (think a high-tech battleship), that role has been supplemented. Missile defense now features more prominently. Polmar’s assessment needs to be taken seriously. He has advised three Navy Secretaries, two Chiefs of Naval Operations and has 50 books — mostly on the Navy — to his credit.

Scott Truver, a respected consultant on naval issues, pointed to the Zumwalt’s much smaller crew size as another fundamental shift for the Navy:


When upwards of 70% of the total ownership cost (TOC) of an ship class is directly related to people, anything that can reduce manning — without diminishing warfighting-first and readiness capabilities, of course — will be major contributors to keeping TOCs in check. The DDG-1000 (Zumwalt) class is the first U.S. Navy warship to fully embrace the precepts of human systems integration in the design and engineering phase—when some 60 percent of a warships’ TOC (Total Operating Costs) are already locked in…. In short, lessons learned from Zumwalt have the potential to ripple throughout the service, generating a real revolution at sea!

He also notes the exotic weapons the Zumwalt can use: “The power-generation and switching and all-electric propulsion systems will enable truly exotic weapons—lasers and electromagnetic rail guns and who knows what else—to be fielded.”[/quote]




http://breakingdefense.com/2013/10/capt ... alt-sails/

[ladajo]

?

Old news.

Are you getting at the 4160V distribution and all electric ship?
We know that.

Zumwalt is not legacy. They were thinking to field Railgun as part of Zumwalt initial delivery, but the program did not make it in time. So it got advanced gun instead. 8 Inches of hit and reach. Much better than 5"/62 long barrels, but still no where near Railgun in capabilities.

5"/54's are a joke for NGFS or long range engagement.

[williatw]

?

Old news.

Why old news post? Because Captain Kirk is going to be in command....I can see it now, "Lock lasers (phasers) on target Mr. Sulu".

[ladajo]

Article has been around a while. It is from October of last year.

In any event, it does show that BUPERS has a sense of humor. Many have doubted that...

[KitemanSA]

5"/54's are a joke for NGFS or long range engagement.

How are they coming along with ERGM or whatever the replacement name was?

[ladajo]

The new 8" will have ERGM. The program for 5"/62 is unfunded. Shame.

They spent the money on HEAT & KEET. Which are good rounds, but not for long range. Last I heard they were adapting them for air targets as well.

The 8" ERGM is going to be a nice round, but limited in target set. Penetration is a lot better, but still not like large bore. I doubt we will ever see big guns afloat again. Railgun will do them in for sure.

[DeltaV]

Fiber Lasers Could Accelerate Fielding Of High-Energy Weapons

Using spectral combining, higher power levels are achieved by adding fiber lasers. “We have shown that our architecture is scalable beyond 100 kw,” Afzal says. Power output is also selectable: “We can run one fiber or all of them; we can run fibers from half power to full power.” And rather than shut down completely if a laser fails, the system degrades gradually, he says, adding that individual lasers are also modular, enabling volume manufacture to reduce costs.

Scalable and selectable power makes fiber lasers well-suited to multifunction applications, Afzal says, where a system could be used for non-lethal communication and target identification as well as for more potent applications such as disabling threat sensors and destroying threats.

[ladajo]

I saw this somewhere else a while back and I don't remember where it was. Maybe it was in the discussions about prusing FEL or alternate ideas. And this was the best alternate or something. I don't remember right now.

[zapkitty]

I saw this somewhere else a while back

I believe that the all of the currently deployed Navy combat lasers are solid state/fiber units.

[ladajo]

I think you are right. Have to check. But I think they are composite aggregated fibers in the test units.