Navy Will Test Its Electromagnetic Railgun aboard DDG 1000

 

The New Electromagnetic Rail Gun Weapon

According to officials, `the navy is speculating whether to mount the new Electromagnetic Rail Gun weapon aboard the high tech DDG 1000 destroyed by mid 2020a. As reported by Program Manager for Directed Energy and Electric Weapon Systems, Capt. Mike Ziv, at the Navy League’s 2015 Sea Air Space symposium at National Harbour, Md., the DDG 1000’s Integrated Power System has been providing a huge amount of on board electricity adequate to accommodate the weapon.

The first of the three planned DDG 1000 destroyers was named in April last year. Ziv had reported that Navy leaders were of the belief that the DDG 1000 is the right ship to house the rail gun though the additional study was essential to examine the dangers. A difficult study on the same should be completed by the end of this year according to Ziv. He further adds that he thinks that it is an ideal platform and there is little bit more work to be done to understand the details.

 The DDG 1000 is said to be 65% larger than the prevailing 9,500 ton Aegis cruisers and destroyers with a displacement of 15,482 tons.

Plans to Test Fire Electromagnetic Rail Gun At Sea – Summer 2016

The integrated power system of the DDG 1000 that includes its electric propulsion enables to generate about 58 megawatts of on-board electric power probably seen as key to the future with regards to the possibility of firing a rail gun.

There is a possibility that someday, the weapon could be configured to fire from DDG 51 Arleigh Burke class destroyers. The Navy has plans to test fire its new Electromagnetic Rail Gun for the first time at sea, in summer of 2016 from on board the USNS Trenton, which is a Joint High Speed Vessel, according to service officials.

Test shots would take place at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla; and at the time of the test, the rail fun would fire a series of GPS guided hypervelocity projectiles at a barge floating on the ocean around 25 to 50 nautical miles away.Ziv informs that `they would be firing it against a floating target and they are trying to gauge the ability of engaging a target over the horizon. Moreover they are also going to have a gradual ramp up and gather data. This would be a significant event though it is also a key learning point’.

Wide Range of At-Sea/Land Based Application

The Navy is said to be developing the rail gun weapon for a wide range of at-sea as well as possible land-based application, according to Ziv and the weapon can fire guided, high speed projectiles more than 100 miles, making it suitable for cruise missile defense, ballistic missile defense and various kinds of surface warfare applications.

 Besides this, the rail gun utilises electrical energy to develop a magnetic field and propel a kinetic energy projectile at Mach 8.5 towards a wide range to target something similar to an enemy vehicles or ballistic missiles and cruise. The weapon is said to operate when electrical power charges up a pulse forming network.

The pulse forming network comprises of capacitors that are able to release large quantity of energy in a short span of time and releases a current on the order of 3 to 5 million amps which is 1,200 volts released in a ten millisecond time frame.

Elon Musk Unveils Tesla's World-Changing Powerwall

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors on announced on Thursday the plans of the company to develop both the residential as well as business battery systems which include the business-oriented Powerpack and the Powerwall Home Battery. Musk added that these power systems are being developed in coordination with the solar panels with the goal of storing energy to be used some other time. These systems are capable of drawing power from the grid whenever there is a decrease in the demand of electricity and they will discharge the same during higher demands and at much expensive rate per units. He also added that these systems will help in reducing the amount of dependence we show on the fossil fuels and also benefit the people who are out of the power grid.

The Power-wall: 

The Powerwall is expected to available in the form of 10kWh system that has been optimized to provide backup applications and also as 7kWh solution for daily use. Once both these are connected to the grid or the solar panel, they are ready to give backup power. When these are paired with the solar power options even the 7kWh Powerwall can be easily used for extending the cost and environmental benefits of solar into multiple hours of usage. These can be mounted home garage wall and being lithium-ion battery packs they can provide backup even during fluctuation in the grid. The Powerwall is expected to available sometime later this year and has been priced at US$3,500.

Brilliant idea: 

The benefits of batteries are unlimited as they help in load shifting during low rate periods, they can even store abundance of solar power and even provide sufficient backup during outages. Powerwall is the combination of all these benefits making them the USPs for the battery system. With the increase in the prices of utility these batteries will provide lots of relief. Customer can go back to using the grid during the off peak periods.

Benefits Vs Costs: 

Pricing plays a very significant role here and both the residential as well as business industry might get a light jolt with the current pricing of the battery. Even though the current pricing of these power systems is comparatively very low to what anyone would have expected. Powerwall has the potential to change the entire energy policy around the globe.

Challenges that can be expected in the future:

Despite the number of benefits that can be availed through the system, it might have to cross some hurdle in the future. The biggest one is expecting discernible impact by up scaling of the manufacturing industry. So numerous building and companies in America it might take years for the systems to be installed everywhere. It might be quite difficult for consumers to learn everything about using the system. The company need to work on reducing the cost per unit and make it more reasonable. Company might face further difficulty in collection and analysis of the consumer usage data.

Aircraft Ground Handling

If you own your own aircraft or an air travel company, it is imperative that you always have dependable power sources for your planes. There are different power supplies available, depending on what type of plane you are using. In order to ensure the safety of every person on board the plane, the power supply you are using must be durable and be able to provide enough power to satisfy the demands of the specific plane it is powering. However, all aircraft power supplies are not created equal. You will need to make the effort to search for the best one. Here are some ideas about where to find an aircraft power supply.

Take a look at some online reviews

If you are in search of a ground power unit, there should be plenty of online reviews of companies like Start Pac that specialize in power supplies for aircrafts. You can find these reviews on a wide variety of websites that are devoted to posting the unedited opinions of actual consumers who have purchased certain items. These people want the rest of the public know about their experience using a certain product. The good thing about this type of review is that it is usually very informative and comprehensive, making it very useful when you are deciding which aircraft power supply to buy.

Ask people in the aircraft industry

If you do not feel like you have been able to gather enough information by looking online, another great idea would be to ask people who work in the aircraft industry for a living. Ideally, you should try to talk to pilots, technicians or mechanics. These people have devoted their lives to flying or servicing planes. Therefore, they will know which brands of power supplies are the best to use, as well as which brands you should avoid.

Manufacturer websites

Another way to gather information about aircraft power supplies is to visit the various websites of the companies that produce the power supplies. You will be able to find out their power output capabilities, as well as which aircraft the different power supplies are designed to be used in. While the information on these manufacturer sites will only focus on the positive, the actual specs of the power supplies will be useful in pointing you in the right direction. While you are visiting these sites, find out the warranty details of each power supply you look at.

Setting a Proper Budget for a Vehicle Restoration

Not having enough in the budget to restore your classic muscle car can be quite disappointing. Muscle cars often bring back childhood or early adulthood memories. A proper budget to make sure that the muscle car restoration project goes as planned is vital. It takes more than just having a vision and a person that can complete the restoration. Always do your research so that you can construct the proper budget.

Create a Restoration Project List

A list is important. This is where you will write down every item that needs to be handled in the restoration. The list should include the body work that needs to be done, as well as the exterior design you want to achieve.

It will help you be more organized with the list if you break it down into sections. The more detailed your list is, the easier it will be to construct the proper budget.

Price Individual Pieces

There are several avenues available for finding parts for your muscle car. Some salvage yards may have usable parts, and of course, there are fabrication shops that can make parts to factory specifications. It is important that you price pieces yourself to ensure that you are getting the best price.

Now, when pricing parts and body pieces, search with a few different options. If the items are not local, include the shipping in your total price. Not including the shipping costs can severely impact your budget. 

Obtain Multiple Quotes

After you have the parts priced and your list ready to go, it's time to start sourcing restoration shops if you aren't completing the project yourself. Some shops will use the sources you've found to obtain parts, as this takes some time off of the project itself. The more you can provide, the easier it is for the shop to complete the project. Obtain a few quotes and select the one that suits your budget the best. This isn't always going to be the cheapest quote. Customer satisfaction, experience and understanding your vision are also important.

Base your budget upon your research and the quotes you receive. Always have a bit of a contingency budget available too. Just as with home improvement projects, automotive restoration projects are prone to the unforeseen. Once a vehicle is completely stripped, the restoration team can really see what you have to start with. More parts or fabrication may be required.

How to Lower the Data Usage

If you are not among the people who enjoy regular unlimited data plan, then you might already have some basic knowledge about data management. This involves no live streaming, downloading large apps or online games unless you are close or using Wi-Fi. Despite using all the available methods you might still not be able to conserve data and ending up paying more than required monthly bills. In this article you will be given some simple way through which you will be able to save every kilobyte.

Change your Maps app or program: 

If you were thinking that maps do not require or uses any data, then you are certainly wrong. It is a GPS service which will require data more specifically if you are using turn-by-turn directions, the built-in navigation service or even watching or checking on the potential traffic on the next road.

If you using the map for a shorter commute than you might be losing out on much data but when it comes to those long drives, the data is gone for a toss. Users have the option to switch to Google maps or Apple maps though for the Apple map you might have to turn the airplane mode on. But for using the GPS navigation service, these offline maps are of no use.

Luck for many people now they can get turn-by-turn directions as well as the GPS navigation without the need of being online, they just need to spend $7.99 and purchase the CoPilot GPS app. This app is currently available for platforms like windows phone, iOS and Android platforms. With this app you will get 2D offline street maps as well as complete navigation support in US. Citizens of Canada will have to pay extra price to avail this option.

Get efficient browser: 

The default phone browser will not help you in saving data though you might enjoy using the web. Other browsers like Opera Mini helps in saving data as it compresses websites before it reaches the phone. It also has another feature called as video boost which helps in saving data by reducing the buffering time. You can also reduce the image quality as well as completely turn off images from being loaded.

For people who have unlimited access to Wi-Fi or data, Opera also allows to switch off the data saving mode so they can enjoy the complete web experience. Even the Chrome app from Google helps in saving data and a good choice for browser. Chrome compresses the pages via Google before it reaches the phone of the user.

Basic Inbox: 

Both the iCloud and Gmail users should download the Dropbox's Mailbox app for saving data as downloading large attachment and opening email with signatures can cost you data. Through this app even though the email might look old and boring but user will be able to read the content of the mail. This app will allow them to see the HTML attachments as well as message also.