Interlude Magnetic Weaponry (Patreon)

The concept of a projectile accelerated by magnets is one that has been experimented with by military and civilian elements alike. Video-sharing sites across the world have videos where various amateurs make their own, as the concept isn’t that complex, but many of these video weapons aren’t much more than a proof of concept and are a far cry from a proper military weapon. Low stopping power, inaccurate at any kind of decent range, and slow to fire, basically amounting to the electromagnetic equivalent to the musket. A usable weapon if everyone else was using muskets, but they aren’t. 

Military projects were typically better, but they too were outperformed by conventional weapons. The issue lay primarily in the power systems available for a man-portable weapon. Two components in particular were considered to blame, the capacitors and battery. They were heavy, clunky, and slow to build up the required power for a shot. That all changed with breakthroughs made by secretly studying a recovered alien life pod. This opened the door for a new generation of magnetic weaponry that was actually competitive, even superior to conventional chemical-powered weapons. 

One of the most important developments made by studying the alien systems was the Phased Plasma cell, a form of micro-fusion device that could be made small enough to fit inside the form factor of a rifle and other small arms while producing the kind of energy needed to power these next-gen concepts. While inferior to the alien version, the current version in use has proved more than sufficient. Advanced capacitors and improved coil designs based on the alien systems were also instrumental in developing the current line of Gauss Weapons.

The MAR-111 is a multirole general-purpose infantry rifle platform, built on an ergonomic and modular frame. Feature easy slide rails that allow troops to swap out auxiliary modules easily in the field that can add extra functionality such as scopes and flashlights. The rifle features an integrated electronics suite as well, which tracks ammo counts, charge level, and fire mode.

The weapon was designed to fire an armor-piercing 7.62 by 51 mm slug at three thousand meters per second. In order to ensure proper acceleration, all rounds approved for use in the One Eleven feature an iron core.  These rounds have an incredible stopping power  and easily outperform more conventional rounds due to their greater velocity with some slug designs having as much as two megajoules of kinetic energy on impact.

This gives the weapon incredible stopping power and even allows rounds to punch through potential forms of cover, making it quite deadly. The MAR-111 in addition to stopping power and high penetration, features three fire modes, single shot, burst, and full auto, and is designed to carry a thirty-round magazine, but larger extended mags are available. Rapid recharge capacitors and an energy reservoir allow the rifle a respectable six hundred round-per-minute fire rate.

The 111 is a solid rifle and has already begun service with a number of elite units, and the slugs it uses are fairly easy to manufacture which has helped its adoption rate. Of course, specialist units would require more specialized equipment.

Another weapon to come out of the weapons division and based on reverse-engineered alien technology is the MAR-S-247, an anti-material rifle designed to use armor-piercing slugs in the familiar 12.7 by 99 mm form factor. In other words, this is a .50 caliber sniper rifle, intended for use against armored personnel and light vehicles.

In addition to the larger round, the rifle features a heavier coil system that can accelerate the rounds to a much greater muzzle velocity, and it is a rifle as the rounds are spun to ensure accuracy at range.  In field tests the rifle was found to be significantly more effective than traditional rifles and capable of reliably striking targets at up to double the range of traditional designs.

As for fire rate, with the heavier coil system the weapon does take a bit longer to charge up for each shot, as the capacitors need .2 seconds to recharge after each shot. The weapon has the option for either five or ten-round magazines and supports only semi-automatic fire modes.

Magnetic accelerator systems also proved amenable to various heavy weapon systems. The high velocities expected of these rounds led weapon designers to look at the system for a man-portable anti-tank solution. The result was the ATM-44, a powerful yet lightweight anti-tank rifle fitted for the American 20 by 102 mm shell. Unlike with smaller rounds, these shells are not solid slugs, they do still fit the solid iron core, but these shells are also packed with a charge.

That was the primary reason for the 20 mm shell choice since it was a platform light enough to be easily man-portable but heavy enough to carry a charge that could threaten tank armor. The shell uses either a depleted uranium or tungsten penetrator tip, and is fueled with a two-stage warhead. The first stage is triggered by a special sensor that fires a plasma stream milliseconds before impact that melts the target's armor, the tip allows the round to punch through any remaining armor before the second stage goes a tightly packed mass of high-explosive.

The testing results of the ATM-44 were quite impressive and worked well as a proof-of-concept device. Development is already in place to adapt the system for use with launch-assisted guided rockets. In the meantime, some units have already begun using the ATM-44 as an alternative to current-generation shoulder-fired anti-tank rockets. The current version features a three-round magazine.

Of course, these systems are also capable of fire rates in the other direction, which has led to several machine gun and autocannon systems being developed. Most of these are for vehicles, but for infantry, there is the MLR-248 light machine gun designed to use the same 7.62 by 51 mm slugs used by the MAR-111 but it supports a much higher fire rate.

Gauss weapons are also quite popular with naval designers, as newer ships are rapidly adopting weapons that employ magnetic acceleration over conventional chemical propellants. As they are generally safer to work with, and are demonstrably more powerful as they are not constrained by the limits of conventional propellants. In fact the navy had been looking at them long before the alien derived technologies became available, and unlike manportable designs they didn’t have an issue with power generation. Rather the main issues depended on the design, naval railguns often suffered from low fire rate and high barrel erosion, while coilguns had difficulty getting the needed velocities. This all changed with the introduction of alien derived systems.

The alien-derived plasma cells were of particular interest to the navy and not just for their usage in weaponry, but in regards to the new naval guns, they were capable of rapidly supplying the energy needed for a high velocity magnetically accelerated projectile. New alien derived capacitors were much faster to build up a charge, solving the fire rate issue, and new generation coils made it possible to produce coilguns with muzzle velocities competitive with or even superior to the previous naval railgun projects. More importantly coilguns didn’t suffer from the barrel erosion issue that railguns had. All of this led to the choice to develop a coil or gauss cannon for the navy, much like the small arms we just saw but on a larger scale.

Due to the popularity of the caliber in American Federation ship design, the 127mm/ 62 caliber was chosen for Federation Destroyers. Firerate wise, the cannon is competitive with conventional designs, but the primary focus was range and firepower. As such the target was twenty rounds per minute, which the cannon achieved reliably in multiple tests. The new series naval gauss cannons were designed with a variable launch velocity in mind, and in testing rounds achieved muzzle velocities in excess of five thousand meters per second firing rounds with shells massing as much as 50 kilograms.

In addition the weapon was design for use with new generation turret systems, which are fully self contained, with an automated loading system and designed to be operated by either computer or remotely from the bridge of an outfitted ship. The weapon utilizes an autoloaded shell magazine system to ensure it can maintain a rapid rate of fire, and is capable of firing several different types of shell, depending on the target and requirements. From shore bombardment to anti-ship roles, the weapon is serviceable and multiplatform.

These new five inch destroyer guns are being seriously considered for shore bombardment roles and some circles are looking at developing an even larger version of the gun for shore bombardment. Progress in that however is limited given the controversy surrounding large gun-carriers like battleships and heavy cruisers. Yet there is also an argument that these would be cheaper and more effective at close to medium range naval support missions than current solutions.

As for smaller calibers, the navy has adopted several new guns, but ones chosen for calibers already in use, to ease the transition from conventional propellants to gauss cannons. In addition the navy has also funded several new weapon procurement projects, aimed at developing a Gauss based assisted launcher for new generation long range missiles. A concept that would have several advantages, most notable would be a theoretical increase in missile range and would reduce the amount of fuel a missile would need to reach its target. While also getting the missile up to high velocities faster.