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Re:Navy Sets World Record With Rail Gun by iuhjyftgrd on Friday December 10, 2010 @05:23PM (#1993428)
That's their main use

With a missile coming toward you at Mach 2-3 you don't want to be shooting subsonic cannon shells at it.

The rail gun ammunition is much smaller so you can carry much more of it and make a much more mobile gun turret because it doesn't need to store tonnes of shells or have a feed back to a magazine.

Re:Navy Sets World Record With Rail Gun by Estragon on Friday December 10, 2010 @05:51PM (#1993521)
But if you look at the video, it's clear they're a long way from making any kind of agile turret out of this. It's HUGE.
Re:Navy Sets World Record With Rail Gun by scdlbx on Saturday December 11, 2010 @04:03AM (#1994510)
It is not that big compared to the guns on a destroyer or a battleship. It is still large and bulky, but not that far off.

Current destroyer's gun: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5%22/54_caliber_Mark_45_gun

Iowa Class gun: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16%22/50_caliber_Mark_7_gun

Re:Navy Sets World Record With Rail Gun by tsotha on Saturday December 11, 2010 @12:39PM (#1995230)
Yeah. The part of the turret you can see when you look at the ship is only the tip of the iceberg.
Re:Navy Sets World Record With Rail Gun by tsotha on Saturday December 11, 2010 @03:38AM (#1994485)
They'll be able to hit incoming missiles, but the primary strength of the system is as long-range artillery for land attack. It won't have the rate of fire you'd need to defend yourself against multiple incoming missiles.