China Tests of Railgun on Tank Landing Ship

China is testing a railgun on Type 072II Yuting-class tank-landing ship, called the Haiyangshan.

The Haiyangshan is capable of deploying ten tanks with a total of 500-ton capacity.

China has claimed to have made a breakthrough with medium voltage integrated DC power.

US Navy presentations indicate that medium voltage DC power distribution is the key to making affordable power for railguns and electromagnetic launchers.

China has not built a ship with integrated electrical propulsion system (IEPS). The US spent nearly $8 billion for each of three Zumwalt destroyers. The Zumwalt has complex integrated ppower using a high-voltage power distribution architecture.

China is planning to develop IEPS using a simpler medium-voltage DC architecture. This would have a single-voltage distribution bus. It would eliminate the need for complex power supply harmonic conditioning and filtering.

Medium voltage (about 12000 volt) DC power distribution that is reliable and affordable is the key to having the power for futuristic technology like railguns and electromagnetic launchers. It would enable the full power of the ship’s engines to be used instead of separate smaller electrical generators.

China is believed to be placing medium voltage power distribution into new frigates and destroyers. We will see over the next few years if such ships are deployed and if they use that power for multi-megawatt railguns.

SOURCES – The Road to MVDC (Dr. Norbert Doerry, Dr. John Amy 2015), Defense Blog
Written By Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com

5 thoughts on “China Tests of Railgun on Tank Landing Ship”

  1. I disagree with the author…the wear/tear on the barrel is the longest pole in the railgun tent…reduce the wear to that approximating the 5in gun and then you’ll have a dependable weapon system.

  2. It’s the same as a cargo plane, in principle…though those have been modified into gunships, before.

    Still, the Outer Space Treaty only addresses ‘nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction,’ not *all* weapons, though one can argue over the definition of ‘mass destruction.’

  3. Will the eventual SpaceX Starship, which will probably be available to the USAF, classify as a space weapon? It will technically be able to put up 100 tons of ordinance into LEO in a bomber style fashion. Just dropping 100 tons of tungsten from LEO can destroy a city center, with good guidance and multiple hit vehicles, a carrier group.

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