The FWS Armory: The Gauss Gun

Lte Şubat 22, 2022

Combat in science fiction is often fought with a variety of weaponry. Everything from plasma rifles in a 40 watt range to mythical laser swords. But, what realistic weapons will our soldiers of the future be using? Many wrongly assumed that combat in the 21st century would be fought with laser blasters and nuclear weapons. However, the majority of weapons on the battlefield are the same or very similar to weapons used forty years ago. Besides the familiar laser blaster, there are weapons based on propelling sabots via magnetic fields. These are nothing new in the realm of Sci-Fi, and continue to day to appear in sci-fi works, but the difference, is that military organization and companies are spending major R&D dollars to bring these weapons of the future into today. Often authors have featured Gauss guns, but often mix up the Gauss gun with the Rail gun. Per the mission statement of FWS, we are going to try to clear things up with the Gauss gun and exploring how a future military organization might deploy such a weapon. On a personal note, out of all kinetic energy weapons (KEW) systems, and the Gauss gun is my favorite.

What is a Gauss Gun?

First off, Gauss guns go by many name: Mass Drivers (much
larger, used for space transportation), Centipede Gun, Magnetic Ladder Gun and if superconductive, a Quench Gun. The name Gauss is named for Carl Friedrich Gauss, who developed the math behind the use of magnetics for acceleration around the 1830's. However, real credit should belong to Kristian Birkeland, who attempted to develop magnetic weapon around 1900. The basic operation of a Gauss gun seems simple enough...a ferromagnetic slug is push/pulled through a series of staged charged Magnetic coils.When the slug reaches the middle of the coil, it is switched off, and the next coil powers on to pull the slug down the barrel, this is known as switching. The slug will increase speed during this push/pull, and depend on the number coils, called stages.

Gauss Guns verse Rail Guns

These two different types of magnetic weaponry are often confused. Oddly enough, most Rail guns in sci-fi are actually Gauss guns, such as in Metal Gear Solid. Rail guns used two conductive 'rails' to propel the sabot, while Gauss uses coils, and Rail guns generate a great deal of heat via electricity and fiction. This causes the need for the rails to be replaced. Rail guns are being currently experimented with by the US Navy, and have shown to generate high velocities, while most of the military coilgun projects are still attempting to get off of the ground, due to their lack of producing HV speeds.

Advantages of Gauss Weaponry

Silent: since there are no moving parts, and no chemical propellant, the Gauss gun is silent
during firing, making it prefect for a sniper rifle, like in the Cyrsis games.
No Muzzle flash: Once again, no chemical propellant moves the slug down the barrel towards its enemy, so there is no need for a sound suppressor, or the telltale gun flashes to zero-in an enemy's position
No moving parts: the Gauss gun could be sealed against all manner of environments, making it prefect of off-world warfare, and less prone to break downs.
High-Velocity Slugs: The big push for Gauss based weaponry is due to it's projected ability to generate the pull/push for a slug traveling at above 3,000 meters per second (m/s). This would makes a relative small slug able to inflict massive damage, much like the kill vehicles used by the US missile shield system.
More ammo, less weight: Any military that uses Gauss weaponry would notice that everything from tanks to infantry could carry more slugs for their Gauss weapons than conventional chemically-propelled weapons. With the sabot being the only item needed, and not a bulky shell filled with gunpowder, more carry could be carried, with less weight and space.

Disadvantages of Gauss Weaponry

Power: the biggest drawback to deploying a man-portable Gauss gun for infantry or Special Operations is the power requirements for these guns to fire slug at HV speeds.
In-Field Service: While not having moving parts, the Gauss gun does have a great deal of electric wiring, could this weapon be 'ruggedized' for field work? And could the portable Gauss be serviceable by in-field by soldiers without degrees in electrical engineering?
Charging-up Delay: Real Gauss guns require a buildup to full charge, which is a delay, and delays can be deadly in combat. One can see this in the (mostly bad) movie Demolition Man, when the magnetic hand weapon takes time between each shot.
Coil Failure: The US DARPA experimented with a 48 stage mortar...what if one or several of those coils failed with a live 81mm mortar round in side the tube. While the need for a mutli-stage coilgun to push/pull the projectile up to HV speeds, every stage as to be switched on and off at the right moment. That is a lot of ifs for a weapon system.
Projectile Saturation: This is when the magnetic field cannot increase the magnetization of the projectile, resulting in loss of speed and effectiveness of the weapon.

Real-World Gauss Guns

If you have the talent, knowledge, and some ability, you too can build a Gauss gun of your very own! Homebrew coilguns are common on the internet, are mostly one-stage (limiting the kinetic punch of the slug) and are single-shot. I have only seen one that was a rapid-fire model, but had limited lethality. A number of this homebrew coilguns are of the "bolt-action" type and do break glass, wreck model aircraft and wooden boards.

There was a model of Gauss machine gun featured in a 1933 Popular Mechanics, a story was written about an "smokeless, noiseless machine gun". However, as we all know, there was no Gauss machine guns in WWII, upon digging around the internet, it seems that the Gauss machine gun did not work. DARPA experimented with a 120mm Gauss mortar that used 1.6MJ to fire and a current 81mm that may be used in the replacement to the HUMMV, the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle. The Chinese are working on a defensive Gauss gun, and the US is planning on a EM aircraft Catapult for the next their carrier class, the Gerald R. Ford.

Military Uses for Gauss Weaponry

Armored Power Suits/Mecha

You now have 20 seconds...

Walking tanks, or mecha, could be a natural platform for mounting powerful magnetic launchers, and serve as front-line artillery support to infantry units, were tanks or fire-bases could be unitized. A 25mm Gauss rifle is used by my American APS unit in my book Endangered Species, as a DMR, anti-artillery/missile defensive system, and anti-material rifle.

Infantry Portable Cannon

Recoilless rifles are the closest thing to Gauss guns in the modern military, and in my own MSF works, this is how futuristic armies deploy magnetic weaponry, via crew-served cannons. This portable Gauss cannons could, in theory, be used against hardened urban targets, mechs, and of course, tanks. Infantry units could have each soldier carry several slugs, like present day LAW rockets or machine gun ammunition.

Anti-Material Rifle

Remember the Cobra Assault Cannon from Robocop? That could be the power of a handheld Gauss cannon, and about the most man-portable that a coilgun could get. Like current military 12.7mm and 20mm 'sniper' rifles, the Gauss anti-material rifle could be used to take out all manner of soft and hard targets, more over, this would make the concept of an HV EM weapon system workable for Special Operations Forces and infantry, because of its mission specific use, and they would not be depending on the rifle for their main offensive/defensive tool of war.

Gauss "Shotgun"

If you remember my flash-fiction Custom, than you read about portable Gauss cannons being loaded with flechette (dart) shot. This could also, if the fast-dump storage device could be fashioned small enough, be made into something similar to a modern shotgun. The hand-pump could be used to charge the capacitors, and delivery one blast of all manner of nasty ammunition. I think Corporal Hicks, said it best, "I save this for close encounters..."

Space Warfare

In the MSF bible, the 1996 ALIENS: Colonial Marines Technical Manuel by Lee Brimmicombe-Wood, he talks about the use of the Sulaco's railgun cannon in space warfare. According to the text, while particle/laser beams and missiles are the preferred method of taking out a enemy ship at combat ranges, the killer-blow is the magnetic propelled round. While missiles and DEW beams have counter-measures, a slug traveling at hyper-velocity, punches through a starship's hull, and no armor is thick enough to repel a HV shell. However, railgun sabots could be avoided, since they do move at the speed of light, and be shot down with defensive lasers. In my own book, Endangered Species, during the hard science orbital space battle, the human warships use 'Gauss shot', a volley of magnetically launched pellets to incepter a enemy missile.

Gauss Tank-based EM cannon

The M50 ONTOS tank

Tanks would be a natural platform of planet-side deployment of Gauss weaponry. The applications of this technology would allow a tank to carry more ammunition than a current MBT, via just the sabot being needed, not the propellant. Also, this could make sabots much smaller than the 105mm/120mm in current service. We could see tank Gauss slugs being closer to WWII tank shell sizes, like 66mm, 75mm, and the dreaded 88mm. I am personally convinced that the M808B MBT Scorpion 90mm HV cannon uses Gauss technology.

Vehicle-mounted

Mounting a portable Gauss cannon to a HUMMV or other off-world Jeep-like vehicle would enhance the tactical capabilities to counter armored vehicles and hardened buildings in urban settings...and it would be really cool.

Heavy Space Launch System

Another use for Gauss technology, along with railguns, is as a launcher platform , known as Mass Drivers. The use of Mass Drivers is to propel payload into low-orbit for pickup, or launch rockets without the telltale signs of a chemical booster launch. It as been rumored that the Viper launchers from BSG are some form of Mass Driver.

Why are Gauss guns NOT in military service?

The main reason that Gauss guns are not being mounted to HUMMVs or on attack helicopters is that the moment, we cannot seem generate EM fields to produce a slug going at above 3,000 m/s. Most homebrew Coilguns are only able to get their slugs up to about the feet-per-second of a paintball gun.In addition, most of these hobby Gauss guns are tied to a major power source, like their local power grid. But all these reason pale in comparison to another real-world reason, the simplicity of modern weapons.When I was playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, at the part when Washington D.C. gets hit with a EMP, and all of the soldiers' red dot sights go down, you know what still worked? The gun itself. It is amazing to think that a modern assault rifle does not require any form of electricity to operate, just a bullet, springs, oil, and a human. Even airsoft and paintball guns require batteries and/or a gas source, but not a good old AK-47, it can operate in the cold thin air of A-stan, just fine. At the moment, the US military's battery operated gear, like the PEQ2, HUD scopes, and NVGs, causes Soldiers and commanders to be concern with their battery supply in the field, just watch HBO's Generation Kill. Something like a Gauss gun would require more batteries and more resupply. At the moment, the chemically propelled projectile is still king...well, until the aliens try to conquer us.

Examples of Gauss-based weaponry in Science-Fiction:

Eraser (1996)

The EM-1 was a magnetic-based weapon that fired aluminum rounds at the speed of light (HAHA!) and mounted a X-ray scope. It was most likely a Gauss gun in operation.

Gundam and other assorted Anime/Manga:

I am a huge Japanese Anime/Manga fan, been that way since 1979, and the field is littered with the use of magnetic weaponry. Some of it is Gauss, yet is called railguns...sign. There are simply too many to list...

Bubblegum Crisis:

One of my all time favorite Anime series, is the 2031 Bubblegun Crisis, and Priss is my one of my favorite ladies of Sci-fi...One of the weapons mounted in Priss first-gen hardsuit is a needle gun, that appears to use magnetics to fire, most likely Gauss...

Mechwarrior:

One of the best things about growing up in the 1980's was playing old-school games like Battletech and destroying your enemies with a crushing Gauss round. It was bitchin'! This was also my introduction to term and use of Gauss guns.

Starcraft series: the Terran Marine C-14

Much is made of the 8mm spike Gauss slug firing main gun of the Terran Marines...but from an article I read (link below), it appears that the developers of the game fail to realize what a Gauss gun is or how it works...I've seen shell casing eject when the C-14 is firing. Seriously, read the article in the link below it does not disappoint.

Quake-2

The first time I'd ever heard the term 'coilgun' was when I played Quake 2...when the cannon is fired, there is actually a corkscrew pattern that trails the slug! Man, I miss the NIN soundtrack and the nail gun from the first Quake game...

Crysis 1 and 2

I have yet to play these FPS games...which I plan on correcting, but the Crysis games do use a portable Gauss sniper rifle and surprise! It seems to be actually based on real scientific behavior of a real Gauss gun!

The HALO series:

Countering the Covenant's plasma-based technology, is the UNSC's magnetic-based weaponry, and Bungie actually did research into the operation and use of a Gauss gun in a futuristic military weaponry, like the Warthog 25mm Gauss cannon, to the massive MAC gun mounted on warships and planetary defense stations. I fucking love HALO...

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress:

In this classic of early sci-fi, a lunar rebellion uses a Mass Driver catapult as a massive weapon to force Earth to grant their freedom. Most likely, this is one the first uses of a Mass Driver as a piece of off-world space-based artillery

Wing Commander (Game)

In the mid-90's I played all of the excellent Wing Commander games, and one of all time favorite weapons to use against cat-alien fighters was the mass driver. According to the Wing Commander wiki site, the Mk. 30A was a Gatling Mass Driver gun. Sweet! Man, how did that movie suck?

Demolition Man

An H&K G-11 is mocked up to be a some sort of portable Gauss Rifle, called ""Magnetic Accelerator Gun" in the film. It is noted for being powerful, but off-set with a recharge time, and being a crappy film to boot.

District 9:

The Prawn Repeater Rifle is most likely a Gauss Rifle based on the design and damage

Turok:

The new 2008 Turok game, while not that great, did have a Gauss "pulse" rifle...wish this game had been better...something things from childhood should stay there.

Fallout 3:

Type the word 'Gauss gun' into google images, and this damn game pops up...I have not played it yet...but it seems that Gauss rifles are throughout the entire Fallout series.

Half-Life series:

It seems that there are few Gauss-based weaponry in the series, like the Tau cannon. I've played (too) much Half-Life, and I don't really see the buggy-mounted cannon being Gauss...damn it! Now, I've gotta play HL2 to check out! Curses!

Babylon 5:

the Centauri fleet used Mass Drivers to bombard the Narn homeworld back to the stone age in episode The Long Twight Struggle.

X-COM: UFO Defense:

From various sites and searches, it seems that the human X-COM forces use Gauss weaponry to fight the aliens, which makes me think that the Stargate people may have got their ideas for the railguns used in the series from here...hmmm..