On the design of a coilgun as a rapid-fire grenade launcher

Two electromagnetic grenade launcher designs for armored vehicles are described. Both are based on the specifications for a conventional launcher, the Mark 19, which uses an M430 projectile. The first launcher has a muzzle velocity of 241 m/sec, as does the conventional one. For the second, the muzzle velocity was increased to 700 m/sec. Because of the large difference between the two velocities, the two designs had to be based on different energy considerations. The effects of variations of barrel parameters such as the pole pitch, the number of sections, and the thickness of the coils, are examined. For the projectile, the sleeve length parameter is varied. General guidelines are presented for the design of grenade coilguns.