RAILGUNS ARE OF CONSIDERABLE INTEREST FOR ARTILLERY, ANTI-ARMOR AND AIR DEFENSE APPLICATIONS.

RAILGUNS ARE OF CONSIDERABLE INTEREST FOR ARTILLERY, ANTI-ARMOR AND AIR DEFENSE APPLICATIONS. THE SUCCESSFUL DEVELOPMENT OF RAILGUNS WILL DEPEND, IN PART, ON UNDERSTANDING THE BEHAVIOR OF THE PLASMA ARMATURE THAT PROPELS THE PROJECTILE, AND THE INTERACTION OF THE ARMATURE WITH THE BORE MATERIALS. MOST EXISTING EXPERIMENTAL RAILGUNSARE NOT WELL SUITED FOR THIS RESEARCH. THEY HAVE LOW AVAILABILITY BE-CAUSE OF BORE SURFACE DAMAGE AND THE TIME/LABOR REQUIRED TO REPLACE BORE COMPONENTS. THE PROPOSED PHSE 1 PROGRAM ADDRESSES THE ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF A LABORATORY RAILGUN SPECIFICALLY FOR THE STUDY OF ARC ARMATURES. IT WILL FEATURE HIGH STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY, MINIMUM MAINTENANCE, ADVANCED MATERIALS TO REDUCE BORE DAMAGE, SIMPLIFIED ASSEMBLY/DISASSEMBLY, PROVISION FOR SIMULTANEOUSLY INJECTING BOTH PLASMA AND PROJECTILE AND EASY ACCESS FOR DIAGNOSTIC PROBES. SPARTA, IN CONJUCTION WITH MAXWELL LABORATORIES, INC., WILL CALCULATE DESIGN PARAMETERS BASED ON THE BRL PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS AND WILL UTILIZE BOTH UNIFQUE DESIGN CONCEPTS AND ADVANCED MATERIALS TO DEVELOP A CONCEPTUAL DESIGN FOR A RAILGUN MEETING THESE REQUIREMENTS. IT IS PLANNED THAT THE DEVICE WILL UNDERGO FINAL DESIGN AND CONTRUCTION IN PHASE 2.