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Originally Posted by MageB420666
When your talking about accelerating the small car to the speeds a rail gun works at, the recoil becomes a real problem even on a battleship. That is why the proposed projectiles are rather small and light compared to conventional rounds. The tungsten projectiles the military is looking at have roughly the shape and size of a model rocket, about two or three feet long, 3 or 4 inches in diameter with fins near the rear for stability. The rail gun relies on kinetic energy provided by velocity to cause damage, not mass. From the discovery channel program I saw on this subject, the rounds are actually travelling fast enough that when they strike the target, the kinetic energy released is so great that it melts the round as it penetrates. So this much smaller projectile transmits more kinetic energy(and damage) to the target than a standard round of a larger mass would.
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I meant that the original naval guns that the rail gun would be replacing fired projectiles the size of a small car, not that the railguns would. Other than that I agree, and like you say as a kinetic kill weapon the actual size of the projectile can be relatively small. They are considering trying to 'drop' the same type of tungsten projectile from an orbiting weapons platform as well as part of the reviving 'Star Wars' space weapons research, since it could be targeted any where and gravity would do all the work.