Abstract
A Distributed Energy Store (DES) powered railgun has been built to evaluate DES projectile acceleration performance and launcher efficiency. We describe the design, fabrication, and initial test results of the launcher, lightweight launch package, and the trigger control system. The launcher has a 19 mm square bore and consisted of three stages; a light gas injector, a 1 m long breech fed EM launcher, and 6.25 m of DES launcher. The launcher is designed to be sealed for vacuum operation and incorporates the current feeds for the 32 stage power supplies. The trigger control system uses signals from B-dot probes to determine when to fire the individual stage power supplies. The system has been tested using both plasma and metallic armatures. For this paper, the results and discussion are limited to plasma armature tests.
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