Plane have you seen this?

[Christians4LessGvt]

Plane have you seen this new weapon?

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f94_1432151663

[Plane]

Yes.

I really like the thing , but what exactly do you shoot with it?

If it is accurate enough to shoot aircraft at long range it could be more useful than the weapons we have , but I doubt that it is that accurate.

If a ship is in line of sight or if a land target is in line of sight this would be devastating to it , but we are already devastating to targets in line of sight with naval guns and further than this with aircraft.

I wonder if this could be combined with super penetrator ammunition and shoot submarines at depth?

It is possible, that this is not a large increase in capability , in spite of a very large cool factor.

Now if it can do something not mentioned , there might be an increase in capability.

[Xavier_Onassis]

How could a charge be sent underwater? That would seem impossible, and perhaps dangerous to a ship using it, the ship being made of metal and all.

[Plane]

...supercavitating bullets cut through water far more easily than normal projectiles, as I discussed I recently in a Wired News article.  Perhaps more importantly, they can punch right through the air-water interface which defeats normal ammo.  Blunt-tipped projectiles moving at high velocity will create a ‘bubble’ of low pressure around themselves and can pass through the air-water interface much more easily, retaining velocity into the water. ...

http://www.wired.com/2007/06/shooting_throug/

This also involves a Russian torpedo which is supersonic underwater.

Bullets that can penetrate a lot of water are pretty new , I do not know if this and that technology can be combined , but if they can, then submarines might be shot at any practical depth with an electric cannon.

For Anti Aircraft , I don't see the rail gun being superior to weapons we already field , for surface and land targets it might offer longer range and rapid attack at range , but not a lot more punch than aircraft.

If this can shoot downwards , it might be a new way to reduce submarines, but it also needs a new way to locate them else they remain an elusive target.

[Xavier_Onassis]

I do not think that lightning can penetrate the ocean to any considerable depth, so I doubt that this thing would work against submarines under the surface.
I don't think that it the purpose for it, either.