I’m a big Maritime guy. The Navy and the Cast Guard are the coolest and most impressive forces on the Earth today- not only for its sheer size, but for its technologies and innovations. For example, the Zumwalt-class is the newest commissioned class of destroyer. The first of her class, the U.S.S. Zumwalt, was launched in 2013. It features an Integrated Power System, which in short means that the power system feeds to all ship systems. According to an article published by The Diplomat, the IPS is “capable of generating 100% of the ship's propulsion needs including electrical components and weapons systems.”
One feature of the Zumwalt that really peaked my interest was the introduction of the railgun. The Navy approved the prototype weapon’s development in ‘05. Currently in it’s second phase of testing, the main focus now is to make it fire repetitively consistently, and to work on work “thermal management techniques.”With initial testing of the prototype weapon at 32 mega-joules proving feasible, the final weapon can launch a projectile over 100 nautical miles(~115 miles) with a muzzle velocity of 4,500 mph.
sources: Office of Naval Research; The Diplomat; Navy.mil
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