NationStates Jolt Archive

"In order to prolong the life of our current battleships, the Empire will endevear to research, test, and produce scramjet powered 16" rounds. Current research has shown that such rounds would easily be more powerful than current 16" rounds.

This comes from the fact that a scramjet round would mantain or increase its initial fired velocity, increasing kinetic energy, and thus increasing penetration. It also increases the range by having faster rounds mantain the speed longer.

As it took the US army only $200,000 to develop a 4" in diameter shell, it is expected that the cost of this program will be quite low. The Empire will pay MiliTech one million dollars in order to develop this technology"

James Trotsky of MiliTech Corporation and Admiral Piere Clark shake hands will the cameras flash in the news room. The reporters ask Trotsky and the Admiral about the round, but all they say is "More details will be released later."

edit-changed "surrent" to "current"
edit #2-added the for sale stuff

Haaregradia has developed 152 and 420mm scramjet and guided scramjet shells. We'll watch with interest.

Artitsa already uses 135mm Quad HEAT charged Scramjet Tank rounds. We'd be more then happy to help FW in developing these shells.

Some Axis Nova weapons fire gyrojet rounds, which are basically a more primitive application of the same principle. (solid fuel rocket in the projectile).

We shall watch your project with interest.

Axis Nova State Department

"The Empire accepts Artitsian (or is it Artitsan, or Artitsanese) help on this project"

-James Trotsky, Project Lead

That effectively makes it a missile..

missile:An object or weapon that is fired, thrown, dropped, or otherwise projected at a target; a projectile.

(Of course, using a gun is probably the cheapest way to get a scramjet up to speed)

We wish to enquire regarding the costs per shell.

"Cost per shell has not been determined as of now. We expect it will not be very much more than that of current 16" rounds, but it will most certainly cost more."

-James Trotsky, Project Lead

EDIT-a 16 inch shell cost 500 dollars per shell

We have scramjet rounds, although our factories are only producing in 30" shells for some odd reason. *whistles*

I bet that is larger than the largest navaly used gun ever.

(woops, posted on wrong nation *points to Xendi*)

We have no clue why are factories are producing shells that big *whistles again*

So what's the range and impact velocity of these rounds? I imagine they are for shore bombardment against hardened bunkers correct? You wouldn't use these against normal targets.

"More details will be released later."

"After completeing this project, we went on to develop a family of scramjet powered naval guns. They come in 5" and 16" sizes.

At the Imperial Naval Gun Test Range on Iliric Island we tested the shells for various things. Foremost of them was range, which we are most pleased with. Our 16" guns were capable of approximately 750 kms, with a velocity of mach 5.3. Our 5" rounds achieved speeds of mach 5.8 and could travel 300 kms.

Now, we were asked what these guns could be used for. Of course, shooting a moving target at maximum distance would achieve nothing-the target will have moved as it would take about 9 minutes for a 16" gun to hit it. However, bunkers, defensive batteries, radars, and things of that nature are stationary and could be hit from maximum range to make way for amphibious operations, air strikes, and other such operations.

Also interesting is that these weaposn could help transform aging battleship designs into effective AMD platforms. Equiped with an airburst scramjet round, a 5" naval gun, or even a 16" one, could fire into the path of an ICBM, explode at a preset point, and possibly deflect or destroy and ICBM. It is not, however, capable of shooting down aircraft as the aircraft does not travel on a predictable path. As an AMD platform, a battleship would be much cheaper than million dollar missles. Each 5" round costs $300 and a 16" costs $900.

MiliTech will supply the Imperial Navy with the scramjet rounds. Export rounds will, of course, have a shorter range. 650km for the 16" export, and 250 for the 5". MiliTech will begin accepting orders for the export version from nations it deems capable of buying these immediatly."

-James Trotsky, Project Lead

Fluffywuffy, my question is where did you come up with that rediculously low number for the price of a ScramJet round?