Electromechanical ballistic DC breaker for use on ships

A novel design for a ballistic DC breaker is described. The key feature of this design is that the resistance of the breaker increases by small steps as a specially designed shuttle is fired at high speed between sliding electrical contacts. The DC current is snuffed out slowly enough to absorb inductively stored energy as resistive heating of the moving shuttle. The design trade-offs are elucidated, and the switching speed for various designs is calculated.