The impact of acceleration on barrel/launch package design

The impact of launch acceleration on the design of electromagnetic launcher barrels and on the design of associated launch packages is discussed. This is of particular interest because launch package size and mass directly affect the overall armament system size and mass. A common design approach is to use as the peak launch acceleration the maximum acceleration which the projectile can be designed to withstand. While this approach will minimize barrel length, it may also yield an excessively large overall system size and mass, especially for the long, slender projectile configurations which are desired for high aero-thermal and terminal ballistics performance. An alternate design approach which balances the goals of reducing barrel length ad reducing launch package mass is described. Results illustrate the benefits of this balanced design approach on overall armament system size and mass