Re: Gauss Weapons

Jonathan spake thusly upon matters weighty: 

> At 00:25 26/08/98 +0100, you wrote:
> >This may not be all that new but friends in low places tell me that
the
> >British Army has a working Gauss artillery piece.
> Hmm.. Is there any distinct advantage to a Gauss artillery piece
compared
> to a standard chemical or binary propellant one? I can understand a
gauss
> gun would have advantages in a tank - caseless ammo, less smoke on
firing
> etc, but an arty piece is nowhere near the enemy and is only really
> vunerable to counterbattery fire and air interdiction raids. Would a
Gauss
> weapon have a longer range than a chemical powered one necessarily?
Higher
> rate of fire? By definition they are going to be heavier of themselves
than
> standard arty pieces because of the magnets, capacitors etc..

Well, you'd get lighter ammo (hence you could have more). You'd get 
low signature firing which makes locating your weapon based on 
signature harder. You'd probably be much kinder to the ears of the 
crew too. And it would be a good way to work around to tank guns and 
infantry gauss weapons too. 

Tom. 
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Thomas Barclay		     
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