Installation and commissioning of the 9 MJ range gun system 90 mm high L´laminated railgun

In December 1993, The University of Texas at Austin Center of Electromechanics (UT-CEM) completed construction of an high L´ railgun for the 9 MJ Range Gun System Program. The 90 mm bore railgun utilizes dispersion strengthened copper rails and incorporates a laminated stainless steel containment structure and filament wound fiber epoxy composite overwrap. In January 1994, the railgun was installed at the Electric Armaments Research Center (EARC) at Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey, for testing on the 52 MJ capacitor bank power supply. The test program at EARC was designed to allow full 2.8 MA current testing of the railgun, breech connection, and flexible hexapolar cable bus system during completion of the 9 MJ Range Gun System compulsator. The EARC test program allows evaluation of the launcher and flexible bus components prior to the range test program and provides empirical data for concurrent design of other railguns incorporating laminated containment structures. This paper describes installation of the railgun into the EARC facility and discusses performance of the railgun and flexible hexapolar cable bus system during initial testing. The hexapolar cables have been tested to 34 kV and are rated for a nominal current of 200 kA per cable, and the flexible bus system and breech connection have repeatedly performed successfully at gigawatt power levels. The paper also presents the results of the railgun test program firing two variations of the sabot launched electric gun kinetic energy (SLEKE) projectiles along with an evaluation of the performance of the dispersion strengthened copper rails with transitioning solid armatures