• sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    I’m thinking of something like the Ukraine War, where neither side has air superiority, and both have capable air defenses. The primary long range attack option is rocket attacks, but rockets are expensive. A railgun just needs electricity, replacement rails, and something conductive to launch. As a fixed weapon, they should be pretty effective, especially if they can adjust their aim a few degrees.

    Germany had air superiority vs UK, so they could use conventional bombers. But today, they’d need to contend with the US, so I don’t think that strategy would work today. Launching heavy objects at incredible speed almost always works though.

    Coilguns are awesome though. I think they’d make awesome anti-tank guns, but they probably wouldn’t scale well enough for long range bombardment.

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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      2 months ago

      I mean, you can make most of the gun underground, but the muzzle always has to stick out. If you don’t have air superiority I’d think that would make it pretty vulnerable.

      A giant, underground gun that that can also aim a few degrees is straight up an experimental concept. I guess you could put it all on a giant turn-table?