PERFORMANCE OF A 1.5 M AUGMENTED RAILGUN USING A PERMANENT-MAGNET

A 1.5 m augmented railgun using a permanent magnet (ARGPM) has been as sembled and tested. The goal of this work is to demonstrate fusion pel let injection with an extremely high velocity, in excess of 5 km/s. In this work, a wood fiber projectile is accelerated up to a velocity of 3.3 km/s in a plasma armature railgun without preaccelerators. Also, the velocity possible for a very light projectile accelerated by the A RGPM is discussed. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.