Single shot performance of RAFIRA

The RApid FIre RAilgun (RAFIRA) developed at the French-German research institute of Saint-Louis (ISL) is a medium caliber (25 mm × 25 mm) system designed to obtain very high fire rates (> 50 Hz). It has an acceleration length of 3 m and is therefore comparable to existing Close-In Weapon Systems (CIWS) such as Goalkeeper or Phalanx. In this short contribution, the single shot performance of RAFIRA is presented. While RAFIRA has in the past mainly been used for multishot studies, its 3.4 MJ power supply allowed for testing speed limits of the brush armature technology used at the ISL. The combination of light-weight sabots made from glass fiber reinforced plastic and multiple metal fiber bundles acting as armatures allowed for reaching muzzle velocities in excess of 2 km/s while exhibiting excellent sliding contact performance throughout the launch. Corresponding experimental findings for varying projectile configurations and primary energies are presented and discussed.