Navy space warfare pin3/11/2023 Railguns, otherwise known as mass drivers, use an electromagnet to catapult projectiles at up to six times the speed of sound. The Navy only recently canceled the plan to use railgun weapons, instead opting to funnel resources to hypersonic missile research. US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kristopher Kirsop courtesy of DVIDS. One of two electromagnetic railgun prototypes on display aboard joint high speed vessel USS Millinocket (JHSV 3) in port at Naval Base San Diego. In 1969, the year the Air Force canceled the MOL, NASA put the first man on the moon. The MOL never launched, but America’s manned space program continued. Though the MOL was canceled in 1969, the Department of Defense spent more than $1.56 billion over five-plus years of development.Īccording to the National Reconnaissance Office: “The actual, classified, mission of the MOL program was to place a manned surveillance satellite into orbit.” Even so, the US believed it could get better reconnaissance photographs than the first-generation Gambit satellite. The Air Force began the project in 1963, but the cost was prohibitively high. Photo courtesy of NASA.Īmid the animosity of the Cold War, the Air Force saw promise in launching the Manned Orbiting Laboratory, or MOL - an orbital platform the size of a small trailer with targeting and reconnaissance capabilities. The Manned Orbital Laboratory project, though canceled in the early 60s, is reminiscent of the International Space Station, but the MOL had a secret purpose of reconnaissance and photography of Soviet launch sites and bases instead of peaceful research between nations. Military Watch puts the bill for the “rod from God” at $230 million per projectile. The problem with dropping tungsten telephone poles from orbit at 10 times the speed of sound? Cost. According to Business Insider: “The idea is like shooting bullets at a target, except instead of losing velocity as it travels, the projectile is gaining velocity and energy that will be expended on impact.” The idea originated from “Lazy Dog” projectiles - effectively metallic bullet-shaped lumps dropped from high altitudes. Measuring 20 feet long and 1 foot in diameter, the “rod from God” weapon could achieve the force of impact from a nuclear strike but with none of the radioactive fallout. The project seeks to drop a massive tungsten rod directly from orbit. The US Air Force’s Project Thor is a theoretical space weapon that remains in development. Effective and useful as bunker busters, these bullet-shaped hunks of metal hit hard. “Lazy Dog” projectiles, used heavily during Vietnam, let gravity do all the work for them.
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