last summer, the U.S. Navy has tested a new Form of cannon projectile successfully. The USS Dewey has made 20 shots. The special feature here: The ammo is very much more than a conventional bullet and is much faster. In this case, the projectile of a normal ship was fired cannon, reported the news portal of the U.S. Navy. Higher reach and higher speed of a missile, in principle, dangerous. The new ammunition could lead to a Renaissance of the old pipe guns, because drones are able to, missiles and Cruise-Missiles to intercept.

Marine armor: sea power – the most important war ships in the world Fullscreen

The USS Zumwalt is like a star destroyer to the water. Crammed with missiles, you should secure the Power of the US Navy on all oceans of the world. But the cost explosion was the planned destroyer fleet to just three copies of shrink. In addition, it is plagued by glitches.

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USS Zumwalt – the largest and deadliest destroyer of all times

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Originally developed the ammunition for a new Generation of weapons. You should be fired from an electromagnetic Railgun. Now it was converted for use in a classic ship’s cannon. As it is now being accelerated by an exploding propellant charge, the weapon is not a Hyper-sonic speed, but still three times the speed of sound and a range of approximately 40 nautical miles. In the case of a Railgun, it would be nautical miles, six times the speed of sound, and 100.

Cheaper than missiles, super-cavitation U-boats of the future – with 5800 km/h under water By Gernot Kramper

The ammunition does not have its own drive, so costs are saved. It only uses the energy created when Firing the propellant charge. For this you has a seeker head that guides the missile to the target. The cost per shot can be between 85,000 and 100,000 U.S. dollars. For an artillery projectile that would be very expensive, but this ammo is replaced to-air missiles, which are much more expensive. In 2016, the guided-missile destroyer USS Mason fired three rockets, two of the older Cruise Missiles to intercept, which was fired from Houthi rebels. The use of a cost of several million dollars.

Since then, the Pentagon is looking for affordable solutions to the air defense. Bryan Clark of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments said, “USNI News”: “let’s Look at the kind of threats we are exposed to in the Middle East – these are simple Cruise Missiles or larger drones. We now have a way to shoot them down, without the use of rockets for millions of dollars.”

This development could trigger a Renaissance of the well-known pipe-cannons. Ships belonging to the appearance of struggle, but have lost in times of guided missiles, the importance of. With conventional ammunition, lengths of twelve to 20 nautical miles can only be achieved – an attack with missile weapons would be far out of cannon range to take place

Marine armor With a hypersonic missile, Putin’s battle cruisers the US to carrier to sink By Gernot Kramper

another advantage is the small size of the projectile. A destroyer could easily result in hundreds of these projectiles. Due to the high missile rate of the guns could defend the ship against a whole swarm of enemy attack weapons. “You can make 15 rounds per Minute for an air defense mission,” said Clark. “This increases our capacity of missile defense.” The few-to-air missiles on Board would be overwhelmed in an attack by a dozen Cruise Missiles or Anti-ship missiles.

Currently, there is a horror scenario, the Navy: What to do if an opponent is a battle ship with cheap drones, and the old Cruise Missiles, as long as it attacks, until the ship has fired its missiles and then deadlier weapons to fire on the now defenseless opponent? A similar attack was exposed to the air base of the Russian armed forces in Syria. 13 cheap drones tried in October 2018, to overcome the defense of the Khmeimim Basis.

Railgun-art on ice

William Roper, then head of the Strategic Capabilities Office, placed suggested the development already in 2016, as he has dampened expectations of an early introduction of Railguns: “We believe that we can do with our old powder cannons still pretty revolutionary things. On it is placed the center of gravity. We have more than 1000 powder cannons, but we only have a few Railguns.”

source: USNI “Navy Quietly Fires 20 Hyper-Velocity Projectiles Through Destroyer’s Deckgun”.

see also:

“hypersonic-weapons – experts warn Super-fast missiles make nuclear war more likely,”

“super cavitation – U-boats of the future – with 5800 km/h under water -”

“With a hypersonic missile, Putin’s battle cruisers to the US-carriers

sink”