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 x 25 mm) system designed to obtain very high fire rates (>50 Hz). It has an acceleration length of 3 m and is therefore comparable with existing close-in weapon systems such as Goalkeeper or Phalanx. In this paper, 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 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 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.