Lorath Matriarchy Matriarchy designed and manufactured 88mm subspace assisted railgun, developed YE 553 - 554 Post Exile, produced 554 Post Exile.
This weapon is also known as R-88 ‘Acesulfulzel’, with ‘R’ officially standing for ‘Railgun’, unofficially, standing for a variety of words that would be less than reputable. Officially, the development name of the weapon has been documented as ‘Acesulfulzel2)’.
A continuation of conventional Lorath railgun design, the R-88 has been designed as a mid-caliber artillery piece, mainly designed to fill in the niche produced by the introduction of the Powered Frame, which has made due with the use of the L-Mark-Two which had its own inherent limitations due to a reliance on volume of fire, over accuracy and stopping power. Developed with accuracy in mind, the R-88 has been designed as a mobile and low-profile artillery piece, suitable for heavy-PA, frame, tank, and light-starship usage. Due to the requirements of the R-88’s intended purpose, supplemental development consultation was conducted with the aid of the Lazarus Consortium, which was able to streamline the unit from having a weight of 4756 Kg, to a manageable 2154.56 Kg in a 1G environment, while maintaining a design which would be producible using equipment available to most modern production firms.
R-88 railguns have a distinctive two-section design, with the forward section being comprised of the barrel and accelerator assembly, with the accelerator assembly placed outside of the barrel, preventing direct contact between the projectile and accelerator assembly. At the rear of the weapon is the cylinder-receiver and, if loaded, the ammunition cylinder. Notably the R-88 may have various housings depending on vehicle mounting or deployment intent.
Loading of the weapon is carried out through the insertion of the magazine cylinder into the cylinder-housing of the weapon. Upon insertion, the cylinder is automatically secured into place, with chambers unaligned to the barrel for safety purposes. Upon being brought out of safe-mode, the cylinder is mechanically rotated to bring a chamber into alignment with the barrel of the weapon. A specific chamber of the cylinder can be selected if mixed loads are present. On activation of discharge, a low-power subspace encasement field is established within the cylinder housing, while an intense electromagnetic field is established, propelling the projectile down barrel and out of the weapon. Once the projectile clears the cylinder, the cylinder can then automatically rotate to the next chamber, allowing for an immediate discharge if desired.
Muzzle Velocity Range - Self Powered: 1116 FPS to 119,916.88 Km/s
Lorath Solid Munitions, 88mm x 855mm
| Railgun Systems can be used to provide initial propulsion to sabot encased missiles. |