Translation:Bolterrifle txt/en

UFOpaedia Entry

Proposal

TO: Base Commander, PHALANX, Atlantic Operations Command

FROM: Cdr. Paul Navarre, R&D: Engineering Division, PHALANX, Atlantic Operations Command

DATE: %02i %s %i

SUB: Proposal: Electromagnetic Rifle

Commander,

The alien armour that we researched proved highly effective against our current long-rang marksman weaponry. I took the initiative to order a cursory review of the research files from several UN nations and I believe we've found a promising research path.

Various designs have been proposed and even prototyped for man-portable electromagnetic weaponry, including railguns, coilguns and quench guns. Of course, all these experiments have failed, since electromagnetic weapons require huge amounts of power -- and therefore banks of capacitors so heavy that no human soldier could possibly carry them.

At least, that's what we thought.

Since then the PHALANX research team has gone from one success to another and now we're confident we can devise a new weapon that will be man-portable and combat effective, with the ability to deliver payloads large enough to penetrate the advanced alien armour.

This idea holds a lot of promise, Commander. We would like your authorisation for lab time and funding in order finally make electromagnetic weaponry a reality.

--Cdr. Navarre

Result

TO: Base Commander, PHALANX, Atlantic Operations Command

FROM: Cdr. Paul Navarre, R&D: Engineering Division, PHALANX, Atlantic Operations Command

DATE: %02i %s %i

SUB: Re: Electromagnetic Rifle

The EM rifle project has been a resounding success! For the first time in human history, we've created a viable man-portable electromagnetic weapon. We have named our weapon the Bolter Rifle to avoid ambiguity with other existing MAG (Magnetic Accelerator Gun) implementations. I'll do my best to explain its operation in this short summary.

The Bolter Rifle is equipped with a railgun configuration, as opposed to a coilgun/Gauss gun configuration, due to the high inefficiency and generally poor operation of coilguns. Railguns work by utilising electromagnetic force to propel an electrically conductive projectile along two conducting rails. The electric current flowing through the rails sets up a magnetic field between them and through the projectile. The direction of the magnetic field is perpendicular to the current flowing through the rails and the projectile; this results in the rails and projectile pushing each other, thereby accelerating the projectile along the rails.

The world's first large-scale railgun, built in the 1970s, used 500 MJ of stored energy from the largest homopolar generator ever built. The electrical equipment needed to power these guns has become much more compact in the past century or so, but it is still not small or light enough to create man-portable weapons capable of replacing chemical-propellant firearms. Another major failing of railguns is their extreme susceptibility to rail erosion. The rails suffer heavy damage from every shot fired along them, and when the contact points are badly damaged, the electric current cannot properly pass from the rails through the projectile. This causes successive shots to lose more and more of their power. Each round needs at least a short length of undamaged rail in order to build up velocity.

Fortunately, we've managed to find a way around this problem -- by loading new rails into the gun after every series of shots.

The concept of pre-loading all of a weapon's ammunition into the barrel has been around for a long time. Until now it has only been applied to conventional firearms, but we have come up with a new concept; a small, individually-powered and insulated length of rail loaded with every round. This gives each round a viable contact point and will allow the weapon to sustain power through all its shots. When all rounds in the current barrel have been depleted -- and therefore the rails thoroughly destroyed -- the soldier can simply unlock the old barrel, let it drop to the ground, and slot in a fresh spare. Then he can replace the battery pack for a new series of shots.

The projectiles are specially-developed 3.2x40mm finned flechettes, stamped from large sheets of tungsten alloy. They are razor-sharp, with excellent armour-piercing qualities, and they tumble like demons inside the target. The holes that these flechettes cause are many times larger than their actual size.

This choice of loading system makes the Bolter slow and clumsy to reload, with expensive, oversized magazines (a new barrel and battery pack for each reload) and a small ammo capacity. On the other hand, the Bolter's stopping power is far greater than any chemical firearm in our arsenal.

--Cdr. Navarre

Damage Type

• normal

Skill

• sniper (primary firemode)
• assault (secondary firemode)

Links

• Sniper Rifle

Stat Suggestions

(This information for reference only; do not translate or include in-game.)

Pro:

1) Very high damage.

2) Long range.

Con:

1) Small magazine.

2) Long reload time.

3) High recoil.

4) Expensive.

5) Expensive magazines.

Research Tree Data

(This information for reference only; do not translate or include in-game.)

Prerequisites:
 None

Opens:
 Enables production -- Bolter Rifle
 Enables production -- Bolter Rifle Magazine