BF2S Forums Railgunz,..

The problem with developing an individual EM weapon is the power source.  Those weapons take a lot of power and energy to operate.  The technology to power effective small-scale EM weapons for individual use just doesn't exist yet, and I doubt soldiers want to go into combat with 50+ pounds of batteries on top of their gear.

RoosterCantrell wrote:

Also, even small calibur Railguns, as do the large ones, break apart after only a few shots.  The amount of energy sent through a rail gun simply tears the gun apart.  That along with the energy need, is the problems that make it currently not viable.

That's one of the problems the Navy is having.  The material science has a lot of work to do if rail guns are to be an actual possibility.  I believe the Navy isn't expecting to have a deployed version until 2020 because a lot of research and development has yet to be made.

dayarath wrote:

nothing a good nuclear power generator can't fix!

or well... it can handle a few shots. But I guess with something like that a few shots is all you need.

The rail guns require large amounts of energy in a very short amount of time.  That's not something a nuclear power plant is particularly good at. 
You'd need to have large amounts of capacitors which the power plant will charge, then use those to provide the power spike required.

SenorToenails wrote:

The problem with developing an individual EM weapon is the power source.  Those weapons take a lot of power and energy to operate.  The technology to power effective small-scale EM weapons for individual use just doesn't exist yet, and I doubt soldiers want to go into combat with 50+ pounds of batteries on top of their gear.

unnamednewbie13 wrote:

Lai wrote:

http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,160195,00.html

I would still like to see more development for individual EM weapon systems. You'd think it would be a lot easier to develop a small calibre, say .22, weapon system than a deck-gun; since power supply is the main problem and does anyone know the advantages and disdadvantage of a Rail EM weapon compared to a Gaussian EM weapon?

You got that backwards. It's easier to develop a deck gun than a .22 weapon system because power supply is a problem.

Hmmm,.. but something in my mind keeps saying that it should be possible to fit such a power supply in a backpack (Warhammer 40k style ). It would be imensely heavy and soldiers already have to carry way to much batteries these days, so it wouldn't be practical, but it would be interesting from a research perspective. I'm quite confident we'll be able to solve the power-dilemma in future decades, we'll have to anyway, unless we want (not just military) technology to stagnate. I think individual EM weapon development would be scientifically, though not military, worthwhile.