Cannon-Caliber Electromagnetic Gun launcher
The Cannon-Caliber Electromagnetic Gun (CCEMG) launcher is a rapid-fire railgun launcher developed by the U.S. military in the early 1990s to study and test the viability of electromagnetic weapons. Description The CCEMG launcher (version III) was a series augmented railgun capable of firing three five-round salvos of 185-g launch packages at a velocity of 1,850 m/s with a firing rate of 5 Hz. It was a 2.25 m long, water-glycol cooled launcher with a 30 mm rectangular bore and achieved rapid fire operation with the help of a CCEMG compulsator that provided multiple 835 kA peak pulses. The CCEMG launcher had an overall mass of only 273 kg despite its solid armature and its structurally stiff makeup, which resulted from incorporating a directional preloading mechanism, ceramic sidewalls, and a composite overwrap in its design. The performance of the CCEMG launcher relied on the system's directional preloading mechanism, called “flatjacks,” which were located between the main and augmenting rails of the railgun. The flatjacks countered the electromagnetic loading and applied pressure to the main rails so that the ceramic sidewalls (made of AD-96 alumina) remained in compression throughout the discharge. They were required to be pressurized to 138 MPa for a