Utterly Mad

Cartridge: 6x25mm Caseless

Intent: Provide a functional, specialised solution to close quarter, individual space based combat

Basic Description:

Compared to the simple, straightforward designs typical of the Rastal combat doctrine, the 6x25mm "cartridge" represents a vast deviation in thinking. Not truly a cartridge, caseless or not, the 6x25mm and it's variants are simply short ferromagnetic spikes designed to be fired from a variety of coil-based weaponry.

Variants:

Special Purpose Ammunition, Space, Mark 2
Bullet: 30 grain ferromagnetic rod
Propellant: None, weapon based.
Velocity And Energy: Approx. 6000 FPS for 2398 ft-lbs of energy in an 8 coil weapon such as the SPW-113

Description:

Designed specifically for zero-G combat, the SPAS Mk. 2 variant of the 6x25mm is designed to have reasonable penetration while generating a minimal amount of recoil force. The rod itself can theoretically be constructed out of any magnetic material, but is typically made out of one of several specific high-density steel alloys. The tip is sharpened, ideally to a mono-molecular point, and along with the last two thirds of the rod itself, is treated to a very high hardness. The first third of the rod, directly behind the tip, is left relatively soft, in order to allow the rod to flex, bend, or otherwise deform when hitting a target, increasing wounding potential and reduce shattering related to the extreme speeds involved. Should the tip fail to penetrate the target despite the incredible velocity, the forward third will shear off, allowing the remainder of the rod a "second chance" at penetration.

While the SPAS Mk. 2 is easily capable of defeating any known weave style body armour, such as kevlar, and is more than capable of eroding the protective capability of any armour under sustained fire, thick enough composite armour of a solid, quality design will typically cause shattering and require multiple, localised hits to overcome. Additionally, while the SPAS Mk. 2 has sufficient energy to kill outright and cause extreme pain, as well as generating enough friction to ignite most flammable objects with repeated hits, it is designed to penetrate and accordingly depressurize EVA suits and void-capable armour rather than cause devastating wounds. As of such, it's potential for direct lethality is generally considered to be inferior to more conventional cartridges.

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Intent: Zero-G / Vacuum Combat Weapon

Manufacturer: Creed Defence Industries
Model: SPW-113

Modularity: Not required for intended purpose

Production: Weapon production relatively simple for any developed society, power supply requires specialised facility

Material: Basic alloys, high tech polymers, classified conductive materials
 
Classification: Multirole assault weapon.
Length: 32 Inches.
Weight: 14 pounds unloaded
Ammunition Type: 6x25mm Caseless
Ammunition Capacity: 60 rounds per magazine, with three combination battery/capacitors providing enough charge to fire a total of 180 rounds.
Range: In it's intended environment, theoretically unlimited. In atmosphere/gravitic environments, maximum accurate range is typically 100 yards
 
Market price: 7500 GSC

Description:

The Special Purpose Weapon 113 was designed solely to remedy a perceived lack of effective weapons geared towards space combat. While conventional firearms such as the R-50 and R-70 are certainly functional in zero-g, no atmosphere conditions, simple physics dictates that they are relatively hard to use accurately and effectively, generating enough force to move the user at fairly significant speeds during automatic fire. In addition, the relatively fine controls and lack of refined edges found on many of these weapons presented both a safety risk and ergonomic difficulties to individuals wearing a standard Rastal Extra Vehicular Combat Suit.

While the CDI design bureau developed several directed energy weapon prototypes in an attempt to address these issues, the costs associated with mass production of laser or particle based weapons, as well as their lack of advantage over projectile based solutions for this purpose, caused them to take a different approach to the issue.

After extensive testing, the SPW-113 was decided to be the simplest, most effective way to overcome the problems presented by space combat. Built around a relatively simple coilgun system, it is fairly simple for any industrial-level world to mass produce, and can capably deal with most expected opposition.

Simply put, the weapon consists of a fairly conventional bullpup style body, containing eight high powered coils. Simple iron sights provide a reasonably effective method of directing fire. Controls are oversized and designed to be easily manipulated - the safety is a simple electronic switch located above the trigger, and is mono-directional, with a single push forward both activating and deactivating the weapon. The magazine release, as well as releases for the capacitor units, are large push buttons located on the right side of the gun, designed to be easily actuated with the user's offhand. An integral flashlight/laser sight is built into the front of the weapon, and is activated and deactivated via a large push button. The available charge of the batteries/capacitors is shown in a simple three-color display on the side of the capacitors themselves, and the charge and remaining ammunition is similarly indicated on the side of the magazine.

Unlike most Rastal weapons, the SPW-113 is not ambidextrous.

The weapon itself is deceptively simple in design, and is capable of being constructed from a wide variety of materials. However, the batteries/capacitors make use of several highly classified compounds, for which the production techniques are an incredibly closely guarded secret. While they are fairly easy to recharge via a variety of energy sources, and typically do not lose charge or burn out unless severely mistreated, they are produced only in the Creed system at this time and are difficult for individuals or non-Rastal militaries to obtain. As is fitting for a space oriented weapon, they are capable of operating in a huge range of temperatures.

Similarly, the magazines are complex relative to most magazine designs, with the weapon's feed mechanism being integrated into them, rather than the weapon itself. This is a simple mechanical device that runs off an internal battery contained in the magazine proper, and which will reliably strip rounds from the magazine at a high speed and properly insert them in the chamber.

Actually firing the weapon is something of a unique experience - though obviously soundless in space, the feed mechanism produces a very distinct "clack" when chambering the projectiles. The rest of the firing process is completely silent, though the projectiles do emit a loud boom as they cross the sound barrier inside of an atmosphere. The gun itself features a single firing mode - fully automatic. As the projectile does not contact the barrel at any point in it's travel, and is not stabilised via conventional or unconventional methods, accuracy inside of an atmosphere is regarded as abysmal, though the projectile will maintain lethal energy and velocity to long ranges. Though the accuracy is less of an issue in zero-g or non-atmospheric areas of operation, the difficulty of effectively aiming a weapon while wearing an EVA suit caused the CDI bureau to specify an extremely high fire rate, compensating for these issues with sheer volume of fire.

As of such, the SPW-113 is capable of firing a blistering thousand rounds per minute. This has the added effective of assisting the projectile in overcoming armour - while it will easily puncture pressurised suits and penetrate most conventional materials, a well armoured individual or light spacecraft will typically be able to resist a single or small number of hits. As the SPW-113 is capable of completely emptying it's magazine in under a second with a controllable, but noticeable spread , projectiles will often either ruin the armour through sustained hits, or score enough hits to find a weak point to penetrate.

All in all, this makes the weapon system incredibly deadly for it's intended purpose, and reasonably functional in other uses. This effectiveness does come with several drawbacks however. To a user not in a zero-g environment, the weapon is rather unwieldy and heavy, and is very difficult to use effectively, accuracy issues aside. In addition, improper maintenance can cause overloads and other malfunctions, occasionally with disastrous results - most notably when a projectile fails to chamber properly and is accelerated in the wrong direction. While the acceleration provided by a single coil is generally not sufficient to kill on it's own, it can certainly damage the weapon, as well as potentially cause the user's suit to depressurize via accidental penetration. Finally, though the high fire rate makes the weapon excellent for engaging small numbers of targets, lack of proper trigger control depletes the weapon's ammunition and power supply very quickly, and generates more heat than can realistically be vented in a handheld device. As of such, unskilled users run the risk of both running out of ammunition and causing a dangerous overheat if maintaining a constant stream of fire.

Currently, there are few variants of the SPW-113, being much more specialized than other CDI designs. The weapons pictured are representative of the CDI standard, with the bottom example featuring an optional magazine retention system capable of holding two more 60 round magazines.


((I'm tired and this might read like crap, but the idea's done and ready for critique and approval. To spare my poorly written science, it's a really high efficiency coilgun that basically shoots nails that have been chopped in half. I purposefully increased the cost to highlight that it's a really limited purpose weapon, but you can actually build a functioning, far less powerful (by like orders of magnitude) version of this in your basement, and could probably make a less sturdy version of this high powered one if the fictional polymers that comprise the batteries and capacitors actually existed and you had some truly impressive conductive material for the coils.))

Yeah, I figured the only reason a race like the Rastal would bother coming up with something new specifically for space is if the new thing was *really* good there. Poking holes is really all you need to do to kill things in space, particularly if they need EVA suits, or have ventable gasses in their body (like people do).

That it sucks (or is at least horribly inefficient and impractical) elsewhere is supposed to be indicative of Rastal combat theory - you don't need to make this work particularly well outside of it's purpose because you already have simpler weapons that much better.

Course, I might have to come up with another design if anyone creates a race that doesn't mind being exposed to the void, but I'll cross that bridge later.

I'm also gonna add two pounds. 10 lbs is fairly heavy for a modern gun, but doing fake math tells me that this thing should be heavier with the big block of switching devices, fuses, and circuitry in the front end.

A coilgun is what many people are actually meaning when they talk about railguns, and especially when they talk about Gauss guns.

A railgun uses an electric current passing through the projectile or a carrier to complete a circuit between two rails, which then form an electromagnetic field between the rails. To really simplify it (because there's no other way to explain it without getting really technical and having this comment become super tedious to read through), because both an electric current and a magnetic field are present, the projectile will be pushed away from the power source due to Lorenz force.

A coilgun is somewhat similar, but rather than relying on a large, long apperature to generate a field strong enough and which will affect the conductor long enough to launch the projectile at a high speed (or relying on an actual electric circuit), it uses coils (usually of wire or aircored conductive tubing IRL, but something fictional in this gun that conducts well without overheating) which have a charge passed through them in sequence to generate progressive fields which pull a magnetic slug forward (well, towards the center of the active coil - timing is the key here) increasingly quickly. You can get stuff going pretty quickly with an efficient single coil, though there's other problems there, so I guess at 8 being effective enough if they are efficient.

There's some fairly big disadvantages to coilguns over railguns IRL, which I can get into if you're interested but will spare you otherwise, but for this fictional one, the main reason I went coil over rail is that coilguns can be made smaller while still being lethal with the addition of only two fictional materials (i.e. a superconductive coil material, which, based on existing DARPA designs, probably exists IRL but is classified, and a way of storing immense power, which is likely at least a few decades off), whereas I couldn't come up with a remotely realistic railgun that would actually be useful in infantry combat (i.e. fully automatic, easily man-portable, etc.).

This particular coilgun is also actually pretty low tech relative to what real coilguns would probably end up looking like (known as a quench gun, though I won't get into that), and honestly, there are RL limitations I've completely ignored simply because it seems likely a proper engineer should be able to compensate for them (such as magnetic saturation, which would put a kibosh on a single coil pistol I have partially thought out as a replacement for the stupid one currently in the CDI post.)

So, as a really long answer to your question, there aren't any electromagnets in the sense you're probably meaning. I don't mind increasing the weight a bit (12 is a good guess, not based on science), so will bump to 14 as I like the idea of it being heavy and expect the power supply would be very dense, but I want to avoid it being much heavier than that. Weight isn't a thing in zero-g, but mass and inertia still are, and while having a difficult to move gun fits with the original goal of the weapon (mitigating it's effect on pushing the user around), if it gets too heavy it will be very, very difficult to bring on target in the first place.

I will also likely submit some other ammunition at a future date. The stuff above represents what I'd call really poorly designed projectiles (they are literally nails cut in half if you ignore the details and just look at the dimensions), but I figured if I made them too dangerous the whole concept wouldn't pass. I'll submit some "proper" stuff separately in the future if the general design of these two things is good enough for the rest of you.

Someday, when I have room and money for materials, I'll give one a go. And likely fail spectacularly. One thing to have an ok understanding of how it works, another to make it work and all.

That's two, so I've copied and pasted this into my CDI post. This can be deleted, or moved somewhere to archive if we want to keep development threads.