Laboratory testing of the pulse power system for the cannon caliber electromagnetic gun system (CCEMG)

The team of (prime contractor) United Defense LP (UDLP) and The University of Texas at Austin Center for Electromechanics (UT-CEM) has completed a significant portion of the testing phase of a trailer mounted compulsator driven 35 mm (round bore equivalent) rapid fire railgun system. The objective of the program is to develop a compact, lightweight pulse power test bed capable of launching 3, 5 round salvos of 185-g integrated launch packages to 1.85 km/s at a firing rate of 5 Hz. Per contractual requirements, the pulse power system is also size compatible with the Amphibious Assault Vehicle (AAV). The pulse power system is developed around a second generation air-core, 4-pole rotating armature, self-excited, compulsator design. The 40 MJ at 12,000 rpm composite rotor stores all 15 shots inertially and is capable of 2.5 GW performance into the 2.21 m long series augmented railgun. This paper describes the CCEMG pulse power supply configuration and highlights important features of the commissioning test plan. The paper then presents test results from mechanical runs, stand alone compulsator (CPA) rectifier tests, short circuit tests, and single shot live fire tests. Finally, CPA performance is compared with predictions for the single shot tests presented.