Russia gunmaker proposes hypersonic sniper gun

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Vladislav Lobaev, the founder and chief engineer of Lobaev Arms is researching hypersonic ammunition and with funding could create a precision cartridge that will have a muzzle velocity of 2,000 m/s (about 6,560 fps) which is about mach 5.8.

This gun would use special chemicals to reach the higher speeds.

1930s US tested a mach 8 small gun

Is the 1930s,

Currently, small arms cartridges barely exceed the 4,000 fps threshold. The Cheyenne Tactical M-200 rifle chambered in the Cheyenne Tactical .408 cartridge. A 305 grain projectile has a muzzle velocity of 3,500 feet per second.

The .17 Remington has muzzle velocity of 4145 fps. It is one of the few cartridges where the powder load is often heavier than the bullet weight, the .17 Remington was introduced by Remington in 1971 as a varmint load for their 700-series rifles. While its poor ballistic coefficient limits its effective range to around 440 yards, its flat trajectory, low recoil and minimal noise makes it a fantastic choice for varmints and other small predators. Some factory loads can reach speeds of over 4,400 feet per second, making it the fastest commercially-available rifle cartridge.

The .17 Remington Fireball has 4000 fps. It was created in 2007 as a response to many popular wildcat cartridges, the .17 Remington fireball factory loads drive a 20-grain bullet up to 4,000 feet per second. While its velocity is approaching that of the .17 Remington, it does so with less powder, meaning less barrel fouling and lower heat, which in turn leads to longer barrel life.

51 thoughts on “Russia gunmaker proposes hypersonic sniper gun”

    • I think you should spam a bit more to get your point across. =D

      Lasers will change the future of everything soon. Not only that, but humans are being bred for advanced eyesight already too. Look up Chimera programs in China, they openly brag about better genetics for their soldiers to see further as is.

      I’m shooting just fine at 2k Yards here in the US with my 6.5CM, regardless of wind. Sooooo why would improved velocity be a bad thing? LOL!

  4. What’s the purpose of such a weapon? At such huge distances it could be unreliable. When drones are already dominating the landscape, isn’t this a solution looking for a problem?

  5. What’s the purpose of such a weapon? At such huge distances it could be unreliable. When drones are already dominating the landscape isn’t this a solution looking for a problem?

  6. What’s the purpose of such a weapon? At such huge distances it could be unreliable. When drones are already dominating the landscape, isn’t this a solution looking for a problem?

  7. As the railgun projects show, you can definitely use electromagnetic systems to accelerate projectiles to hypersonic speeds. However, your railgun, with the huge banks of capacitors and power supplies, ends up much bigger and heavier than a simple bullet where you can carry a dozen of them in your pocket. As they scale up to artillery size, the size, weight and handling problems of (safely!) transporting and handling literally a tonne or more of artillery shell grows and grows. At some point (according to current military thinking) there is a crossover point where the railgun becomes easier and cheaper to use. But I think that in 2018 a rifle will be way below that crossover point.

  8. As the railgun projects show you can definitely use electromagnetic systems to accelerate projectiles to hypersonic speeds.However your railgun with the huge banks of capacitors and power supplies ends up much bigger and heavier than a simple bullet where you can carry a dozen of them in your pocket.As they scale up to artillery size the size weight and handling problems of (safely!) transporting and handling literally a tonne or more of artillery shell grows and grows. At some point (according to current military thinking) there is a crossover point where the railgun becomes easier and cheaper to use.But I think that in 2018 a rifle will be way below that crossover point.

  9. As the railgun projects show, you can definitely use electromagnetic systems to accelerate projectiles to hypersonic speeds.

    However, your railgun, with the huge banks of capacitors and power supplies, ends up much bigger and heavier than a simple bullet where you can carry a dozen of them in your pocket.

    As they scale up to artillery size, the size, weight and handling problems of (safely!) transporting and handling literally a tonne or more of artillery shell grows and grows. At some point (according to current military thinking) there is a crossover point where the railgun becomes easier and cheaper to use.

    But I think that in 2018 a rifle will be way below that crossover point.

  10. Y’all really need to read the comments about this on thefirearmblog (dot com) russian-lobaev-arms-to-develop-hypersonic-ammunition. It’s hilarious. Comments like: – it’s been done already, The illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator – Don’t bother. I have developed a 3rd generation hypersonic blockchain rifle. Self-confirming kills out to 15 km. When everything works All said and done, though, Lobaev does make very fine guns. Check out the “Twilight”. It’s about $30k. They take credit cards.

  11. Y’all really need to read the comments about this on thefirearmblog (dot com) russian-lobaev-arms-to-develop-hypersonic-ammunition.It’s hilarious. Comments like:- it’s been done already The illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator- Don’t bother. I have developed a 3rd generation hypersonic blockchain rifle. Self-confirming kills out to 15 km. When everything worksAll said and done though Lobaev does make very fine guns. Check out the Twilight””. It’s about $30k. They take credit cards.”””

  12. You can’t use high explosives in guns, the expansion is too quick. Even with the best modern materials, I don’t think you can do that. And, if you could, the recoil would be absurd as well as very likely rupturing the ear drums of the rifleman even with good ear protection. High explosives have a very intense shockwave that can deform or rupture just about anything. You need a low explosive, but a good one. Or just a lot of it.

  13. You can’t use high explosives in guns the expansion is too quick. Even with the best modern materials I don’t think you can do that. And if you could the recoil would be absurd as well as very likely rupturing the ear drums of the rifleman even with good ear protection. High explosives have a very intense shockwave that can deform or rupture just about anything.You need a low explosive but a good one. Or just a lot of it.

  14. Magnets. … How they work. … >_> Jokes aside, could electromagnetism be used to assist with projectile acceleration in a weapon like this?

  15. Magnets. …How they work…. >_>Jokes aside could electromagnetism be used to assist with projectile acceleration in a weapon like this?

  18. Presumably with a lower average molecular weight, as the maximum speed of a projectile is related to the speed of sound in the (highly compressed) propellant gases, and that goes up with declining molecular weight.

  19. Presumably with a lower average molecular weight as the maximum speed of a projectile is related to the speed of sound in the (highly compressed) propellant gases and that goes up with declining molecular weight.

  22. You can grok it pretty quick looking at e.g. the chart posted on the wiki page for en.wikipedia.orgwikiBallistic_table

  23. You can grok it pretty quick looking at e.g. the chart posted on the wiki page for en.wikipedia.org\wiki\Ballistic_table

  24. It’s pretty common term. The concept is fundamental to ballistics: projectile dispersion as an angle instead of as a diameter or area

  25. It’s pretty common term. The concept is fundamental to ballistics: projectile dispersion as an angle instead of as a diameter or area

  30. Y’all really need to read the comments about this on thefirearmblog (dot com) russian-lobaev-arms-to-develop-hypersonic-ammunition.
    It’s hilarious. Comments like:
    – it’s been done already, The illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator
    – Don’t bother. I have developed a 3rd generation hypersonic blockchain rifle. Self-confirming kills out to 15 km. When everything works

    All said and done, though, Lobaev does make very fine guns. Check out the “Twilight”. It’s about $30k. They take credit cards.

  35. That would be pretty impressive; The .50 BMG round, with a sabot and undersized bullet, can manage about 1,200 m/s. However, to exploit the MOA they’re suggesting, you’d need some sort of stabilization system for the gun, a human can’t hold a gun steady enough for 0.2 MOA to be achievable as a practical matter.

  36. That would be pretty impressive; The .50 BMG round with a sabot and undersized bullet can manage about 1200 m/s.However to exploit the MOA they’re suggesting you’d need some sort of stabilization system for the gun a human can’t hold a gun steady enough for 0.2 MOA to be achievable as a practical matter.

  37. You can’t use high explosives in guns, the expansion is too quick. Even with the best modern materials, I don’t think you can do that. And, if you could, the recoil would be absurd as well as very likely rupturing the ear drums of the rifleman even with good ear protection. High explosives have a very intense shockwave that can deform or rupture just about anything.

    You need a low explosive, but a good one. Or just a lot of it.

  40. Presumably with a lower average molecular weight, as the maximum speed of a projectile is related to the speed of sound in the (highly compressed) propellant gases, and that goes up with declining molecular weight.

  43. It’s pretty common term. The concept is fundamental to ballistics: projectile dispersion as an angle instead of as a diameter or area

  48. That would be pretty impressive; The .50 BMG round, with a sabot and undersized bullet, can manage about 1,200 m/s.

    However, to exploit the MOA they’re suggesting, you’d need some sort of stabilization system for the gun, a human can’t hold a gun steady enough for 0.2 MOA to be achievable as a practical matter.

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