Shipbucket

I was reading about Gerald Bull and some of his various supergun and artillery projects such as HARP, Babylon, and the GC-45 and last night while dreaming in my sleep I had a peculiar image in my mind of a tanker converted to carry a single large artillery piece, probably as part of some over the top and doomed-to-fail plot by (insert Middle Eastern nation here) to attack NATO bases or Israel. For some odd reason this dream didn't evaporate into nothingness when I awoke this morning and that image keeps nagging at me to draw it.

I have absolutely no idea why such a gun would be placed on a ship (an ex-commercial vessel no less) other than (maybe) the "rule of cool".

My point in this post is either to receive help developing this crazy, sleep-induced idea into something workable to draw in SB scale or to get help in killing off the idea so I can pursue more fruitful ventures in design.

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I'll jump in over my head...

Why not just use "off the shelf" missiles, cruise missiles, or even a stolen nuke (with a couple sneaky guys to get it on target)? Each would likely be less expensive to develop and more technologically accessible by any developing country. It's simply very hard to build larges guns that won't fail. By default that takes big league manufacturing countries.

The next issue I see is recoil when the thing fires. What sort of shock damage happens to ship's systems? How many shots before there's structural failure to the ship...even with serious reinforcement below.

Then there's targeting. Ships move and rock...that elevated muzzle is going to move around quite a bit in 3 dimensions. Aim for downtown Burbank and hit the Hollywood sign (used an example everyone in the world has seen on TV and besides, SoCal is generally a dumb place from a NorCal perspective).

All that money spent would have "better" been used lining pockets of said country's ruling elite.

With a gun like this, why not keep it on shore where it can be repaired. Anybody worth popping shots at is likely to be nearby anyway. If not, there's plenty of crazy guys in the world happy to get on a plane, do a suicide attack or light off a truck bomb.

Other than that, it might be a fun draw to do. Might be even better if it's used in an arms race between a couple SB Alternate Universes.

Let the games begin.

CraigH

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The issues you brought up are the same problems I thought of.

The only premise I can come up with that remotely allows for it is that the nation is ruled by an over the top dictator, much like North Korea. But again, they may as well spend their money on buying or developing cruise missiles.

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The best place I could see a supergun working is somewhere like the Straits of Gibraltar where the supergun can reach the African shore. "Pay through the nose our exorbitant toll fees, or we sink your ship".

You would probably need a range of guns for close in work out to supergun range. You do not want to have to use the supergun to sink a 30ft yacht over the African side.

BTW we take MasterCard, Visa, ....

That's quite the way to enforce a toll.

Here's the dimensions of Gerald Bull's superguns designed under Project Babylon

Baby Babylon:

Bore: 350mm (13.8 inches)
Barrel Length: 46 meters (151 feet)
Barrel Weight: 102 tonnes

Big Babylon:

Bore: 1 meter (3.3 feet)
Barrel Length: 156 meters (512 feet)
Barrel Weight: 1655 tonnes
Total Weight: 2100 tonnes

Big Babylon was intended to launch projectiles into orbit, such as satellites, Baby Babylon was designed as a test piece for the larger gun but could also have possibly served as a large, stationary artillery piece.

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Hi all,

In response to CraigH, there are some mitigating factors in this design - while I've not doubt recoil is going to be a substantial issue, as I understand to make the barrel lightweight (and preserve the payload - this was notionally a low-cost satellite launcher, after all) the powder was deliberately quite slow burning, which permitted a thinner wall thickness on the barrel - and should also spread the recoil out a bit, too.

That aside, yeah, stabilisation is going to be a mother of a problem, I suspect, even if you have some weird hull shape to minimise interaction with the waves. SWATH probably wouldn't work at all (where would you put the massive gun?); I have no idea what the hull would actually look like - could you get a SWAT(riple)H with a big centre hull for the gun?

(Ooh, idea: You could use Dr Pawling's HYSWAS hydrofoil! http://www.shipbucket.com/forums/viewto ... 20#p112767)

Anyway, bringing the slightly random comment to a close as I suspect it's just getting incoherent now...

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Why not try a railgun? Anyways I think missiles would be better and more cost-effective for that purpose, until railgun tech matures.

That gives me an idea, to utilize the role of low cost space launches through a railgun to launch small satellites. The Sea Launch platform could make for a good basis for the launch vessel and would be accompanied by a command ship.

It does have a military application beyond launching recon satellites, the launching of kinetic bombardment vehicles that de-orbit to strike targets around the globe.

I could definitely work with this concept.

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I sketched some designs out between classes at my college and came up with several variations of the launch vessel. The designs I'm focusing on are a semi-submersible platform (like the Sealaunch Odyssey), a Tri/SWATH, or a conventional hull with SWA outriggers.

Currently the concept involves the ship/platform launching satellites from the nanosat class up to satellites that are approximately 1 meter in diameter through a helical railgun.

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ONI,

Locate the super stable hull of choice.
Design into that hull some serious gun stabilization and targeting systems. Maybe include high end data links to shore facilities and satellite up-links. You'll need the telemetry for in orbit targets, etc.

That gun needs to be dry land stable when it fires or the targeting system needs to simulate it when it does the calculations. Also figure on servos, gimbals, and cool hardware so the thing actively tracks whatever is targeted. Having a rail gun (or equivalent) on a hull would conceivably help with opening up launch options for attaining all sorts of orbital options. Just be aware that even a tiny bit of rocking hull can throw that payload way off target downrange.

Getting an object into orbit is one thing, hitting a useful one is a serious challenge. Matching a target's orbit is nightmarish. Actually hitting an object in orbit requires a payload that can track and home in on the target. Even then, the basic trajectory needs to be spot on...flying like a fighter is impossible in space.

This I know from playing the Sim "Orbiter" for a number of years. It's got the best orbital physics around. Give it a try and you'll probably end up qualified to be a space navigator. That or you'll pound your head against the keyboard, drink heavily, stay up till 4am....

It's easy to aim for the moon. Not becoming a new crater is a tad more difficult.
CraigH

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In active progress
More Ships with Sails
Early Torpedo Boats in SB and FD Scales
Some railroad stuff
More random stuff that strikes me!