But they need to charge the capacitors, so I would assume they would need a large electrical power source in addition to the space to fit the system?
If you want to fire 10 shots a minute then I would guess you need to charge pretty fast which could imply a large electrical source. That’s why I suggested the type 45.
Any electrical engineers who could comment on this?
An Arleigh Burke class destroyer with 4 turbines produce excess of 80,000 KW of power, but I am not sure what fraction of it is available as Electric power and how much is used for propulsion.
To provide 33 megajoules of energy per shot and with that firing rate (10 shots per minute, although I don’t expect all shots to be fired at max power) would require 5500 KW of power(at least). So either all the non vital systems would be put on standby ( in which case the system will still struggle to provide that much power) or the generators would have to be upgraded (which means additional load on the turbines, or maybe entirely new propulsion system ?). I think a retrofit would be a very difficult task unless the ship was designed with ample amount of extra on board power.
There would be a similar problem in using a compensated pulse alternator which needs mechanical power via a prime mover (either an electric motor or its own independent gas turbine) to prime up a very heavy flywheel. Although this system might by more compartmentalized, it wouldn’t take anything less than a small retrofit for this as well. I may be wrong but I don’t see any ship, not designed keeping rail gun system in mind, operating rail guns via a retrofit.
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