On 14Jul2020 1159, xxxxxx@gmail.com wrote:
> Yes, engaging essentially flat targets with a flat-ish trajectory
> won't work out well. Even MG fire at long distance has a higher arc.
>
> A magnetic launch ought to be able to have a smooth, stable
> acceleration all the way along. I would think that in any
> combustion/explosion scenario, your greatest acceleration and pressure
> is immediately after combustion when the blast is the most
> contained.... as it passes down the barrel, a fair bit more space
> exists behind it so one would expect (or I would anyway) that the
> pressure behind it would reduce steadily as it passed down the barrel.
> So something that could even that out could make a difference.
That is correct, and the goal of ETC and liguid propellant tech is to be
able to control combustion so that the peak pressure can be maintained
for longer, allowing higher veolcities or the same velocities with
lighter barrels and less barrel wear.

>
> Of course, those sorts of systems at higher TLs (9+) ought to be able
> to meter the acceleration dynamically and adjust sighting accordingly.
> Also, one imagines magnetic launch might be better given the lack of a
> muzzle flare (harder to spot the firing vehicle).
There'll a be huge magnetic surge though, so while they might be
invisible to low tech opponents to high tech ones they'll be just as
visible as conventional artillery.

Sighting is already adjusted automatically to allow for changes in
muzzle velocity due to temperature, propellant temperature, barrel wear,
wind, rain, Earth's spin, and so on. Large warships' fire control
systems were doing all this before WWII, and to a lesser extent (they
were allowing for fewer variables) in WWI.
>
> Of course, I didn't see the two stage missile systems in there either
> - one goes in, hits the target, sets off ERA, blows off ablative
> stuff, then the second one hits a second or three later in exactly the
> same spot. And the new railguns aren't exactly represented either.
The current generation of railguns are a solution looking for a problem.

--
Rupert Boleyn <xxxxxx@gmail.com>