THE KIRKCUDBRIGHT ELECTROMAGNETIC LAUNCH FACILITY

The U. K. Ministry of Defense is preparing a new electromagnetic launch facility at the Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment (RARDE) range, in Kirkcudbright, Scotland. The facility will be used to obtain ballistic data on hyper-velocity projectiles to demonstrate their potential use in the tactical scenario. The facility is designed to allow the use of a broad range of electromagnetic guns, as well as electrothermal guns. The facility includes a 2 km instrumented range to assess the performance of the gun/projectile system. Two firing points will be available inside the building for use with Electromagnetic guns; one firing down the 2 km instrumented range, the other firing to a stop butt 100 m from the building. Electrothermal guns tested at the facility will be located outside the building, in an enclosed blockhouse, and can be fired down the instrumented range. The pulsed power system stores 32.2 MJ at 11 kV in 29 independently-triggerable capacitor bank modules. This design provides considerable flexibility in operating parameters, to accommodate a broad range of EM and ET guns and a broad range of projectile types and masses. The pulsed power system is specifically designed to be very fault tolerant, to assure high availability. The facility will begin operation using an electromagnetic rail gun of 90 mm bore, with an accelerating length of 7m.