Single-Shot Performance of RAFIRA

Abstract

The rapid fire railgun (RAFIRA) developed at the French-German Research Institute of Saint-Louis (ISL) is a medium-caliber (25 mm × 25 mm) system designed to obtain very high fire rates (>50 Hz). It has an acceleration length of 3 m and is therefore comparable with existing close-in weapon systems such as Goalkeeper or Phalanx. In this paper, the singleshot performance of RAFIRA is presented. While RAFIRA has, in the past, mainly been used for multishot studies, its 3.4-MJ power supply allowed testing speed limits of the brush armature technology used at the ISL. The combination of light-weight sabots made from glass fiber-reinforced plastic and multiple metal fiber bundles acting as armatures allowed muzzle velocities in excess of 2 km/s while exhibiting excellent sliding contact performance throughout the launch. Corresponding experimental findings for varying projectile configurations and primary energies are presented and discussed.