Future Guns: Projectile Obsolete?

[esampson]

Re: Future Guns: Projectile Obsolete?

 

Speed of sound in the earth atmosphere.

The speed of sound varries greatly on the medium. It is 4 times faster in the water, for example.

 

I clearly stated "speed of sound in the propelling explosion".

 

Ah. I misunderstood.

[Old Man]

Re: Future Guns: Projectile Obsolete?

 

In the case of your average man-portable weapon though I'm not that sure its that big a deal. Yes, ultimately it is more desirable to have the higher muzzle velocity but the final effect winds up being only a marginal improvement. If a conventional firearm has a 90% chance of rendering an opponent incapable of continuing combat (which I admit is just a number I'm pulling out of the air) then even under the best case scenario a railgun would only offer a little over 10% advantage for incapacitating an opponent.

 

The other advantages of a higher speed are probably only marginal in general combat conditions. While the railgun might have a better range in a general firefight the weak point would be the ability of the soldier to aim effectively. Of course there are going to be edge cases such as snipers where that better range might make a real difference but edge cases aren't what will generally propel development.

 

The other factor here is improving defenses. Body armor tech has reached a point where rifle rounds can fairly reliably be stopped by a plate. That's what's driven the development of rounds like the FN 5.7mm or the HK 4.6mm, both of which are very narrow, high velocity bullets to maximize armor penetration. I've seen some literature that predicts that, as armor becomes more and more widespread, the rifle may give way to grenade and rocket launchers as the 'standard' infantry weapon. I know the Chechens have been organizing squads around the RPG gunners, as opposed to attaching RPG gunners to rifle squads.

[NuSoardGraphite]

Re: Future Guns: Projectile Obsolete?

 

In my own campaign setting, projectile weapons are still around, though often not quite as popular as energy weapons, they are still used by the populace as defense weapons and many poorer armies and PMC's still use them quite a bit. Advances in ammunition have allowed them to keep pace with most energy weapons as far as the damage potential is concerned. However, my campaign IS space opera, and as such, the beam weaponry tend to be more prolific, mainly because they are much sexier than projectile weaponry. (from a stylistic perspective)

 

The main problem projectile weapons run into is that aside from some specialty ammunition types, bullets have an extremely difficult time penetrating high-tech heavy body armors. The technological improvements to body armor have almost made projectile weapons obsolete in warfare. Dense, hardened plate armor is the rule of the day. Gravitic and inertial compensation technology has made this armor quite mobile, reducing the load on the wearer so they can move freely. Such armor is of course Hardened and standard Armor Piercing rounds are no benefit against them. (lasers, with their natural AP capability, have a similarly difficult time penetrating Heavy Body Armor) Plasma, Particle-Beam and Pulse weaponry (Pulse weaponry is a focus force field, fired at near relativistic velocities at a target. Basically, pure kinetic energy with very high damage potential) perform better at putting damage through heavy armor. These weapons forced armor manufacturers to develop personal force-field technology.

 

However the most feared weapons on the battlefield are projectile based. The huge chainguns capable of unleashing thousands of rounds per minute at extremely high velocities and the ultimate in fire-power, anti-matter bullets. While chainguns are found in armies everywhere, anit-matter bullets are quite rare because 1: they are illegal as hell. 2: They cost an ass-ton of money. Very few but the most wealthy of nations can afford them (or have the technological know-how to make them)

[tkdguy]

Re: Future Guns: Projectile Obsolete?

 

In my campaign, Gauss weapons are available but extremely rare at the personal level. Most would be mounted on vehicles. A few of the handheld Gauss rifles have made it past the experimental stage, but they're expensive. Gunpowder still is king in my game.

[Alcamtar]

Re: Future Guns: Projectile Obsolete?

 

For genre examples of SF projectile weapons: Aliens. Halo. Oh, and there's always this: