With the addition of combat cyborgs to the NEMA forces in the years following the Congo/Sudanese War of 2058 (One of NEMA's toughest challenges as world peacekeepers) NEMA once again opened the Future Warfighter Program in order to develop heavy weapons for the powered armor soldiers, cyborgs, and other amplified humans. Field testing on weapons was done for over 3 years before the Program authorized three total weapon systems to be fielded for cyborgs and power armor soldiers.
The R-660 Light Rail Gun System was submitted by Pontiac, which had made a name for itself in magnetic propulsion systems, as well as its NEMA Naval armaments (including highly secret work on the Submersible Carrier Project) programs and of course, the feather in its cap, the Chromium Guardsman Primary Rail Gun System.
The system passed with flying colors, leaving the other manufacturers in the dust, and the weapon was built in five stages, with factories in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The lower framework was made in Darango, Mexico; the upper framework was made in Regina Canada, the rail systems were made in Merida Mexico (on the Yucatan Peninsula), the electronics were made in Portland, Oregon; and the weapon was assembled in Detriot.
The system requires either a two man team utilizing the front bipod, a static emplacement using a tripod, mounted on a vehicle, as a supplementary weapon for power armors, or packed by cybernetic infantry soldiers.
The system uses a pair of electromagnetic superconductive rails to accelerate a ferrous coated projectile at "signifigant" velocity, mostly limited by the applied current and the length of the rails. It is these rails that suffer the most degradation of the material as heat transfer and the collapse of air into the railgun's path cause minor stress fractures in the material. However, the life expectancy of the rails usually measure into the millions of rounds, and the onboard computer systems of modern railguns contain a rail diagnostic feature, as well as alerting the user whenever a rail gun rail falls below 60% integrity.
The R-660 rail gun uses heavy duty polyceramic casings, as well as a modified Farraday Cage in order to keep the electromagnetic energy from effecting the surrounding area outside the weapon. Circuitry is precision made to be unaffected by the strong magnetic fields generated by the rails.
In field testing, this light weapon was discovered to be an excellent squad automatic weapon, and as a light machinegun class weapon, it performed outstandingly. Shot groups were tightly grouped at ranges up to 4000m with computer targeting assistance and the new gyrostabalized tripod or with the built in targeting assistance computer and a vehicle mount. While targets were hit at ranges exceeding 4000m by all users (power armor, vehicle mounted, gryostabalized, bipod fixed, cyborg infantry) the shot grouping was too dispersed for the weapon to be considered effective when firing a burst at such a range. However the "line of sight" problem became immediately obvious, as the round usually continued past the "horizon" to land as far as 12km away (7km past the horizon line of sight) and were found via transmitter impregnated rounds.
Unlike those rail gun systems that were attempting to copy the "Boom Gun" Pontiac chose to use the multiple round armor ablation technique, allowing the magnetic rails to be charged once and multiple rounds be fired down the rails, thus significantly reducing energy use. The rapid striking of the target's armor resulted in microstress fractures caused by the initial rounds to be expanded on and widened by successive rounds, causing a large, irregular divot to appear in the armor.
In tests against mothballed M1A4D main battle tanks, the rail gun was able to damage and eventually penetrate the tank armor by repeated precision hits to the same impact area.
When tested with APDS rounds, the R-660 was found to have superior armor breaching capability, tearing through previous generation armor much more rapidly than standard "fracture rounds" (as the solid slugs fired in rapid succession were classified as).
However, when compared to modern armor, the weapon was classified as a light anti-vehicle/armor weapon, used primarily for anti-personnel duties.
The weapon has the ability to fire 1 round, 10 round bursts, or fully automatic. Single shot has proven useful in defeating unarmored vehicles, killing unarmored enemy personnel, and causing extensive damage to non-military watercraft.
The weapon produces a loud tearing noise as the round accelerate past Mach One, and those who the round(s) travel near can hear the supersonic cracking of the round, however, it was not deemed as loud as the old M2A2 .50 Caliber machinegun.
In a revolutionary move, rather than use a separate power source, the R-660 system used Pontiac's new "energized" rail gun rounds. These weapons had a base of capacitance gel wrapped in superconductor foil. When the foil made contact with the rings, the capacitance gel released its energy, consuming both the gel and the foil, and powering the rail gun.
However, the rail gun has shown that after several extended hours of combat use, the rails may become fouled with resolidified material that was turned gaseous during the energy transfer.
In addition to being able to use drums and magazine of rail gun munitions, NEMA requested that the weapon be able to handle belt fed ammunition, for use in fixed positions or in vehicle mounts. This was handled by having what's known as an "open drum" locked into place, with the rounds held together by light magnetism. This gives the R-660 potentially unlimited firepower when in a fixed position.
One problem that the R-660 does suffer is rail overheating, which increases the resistance of the rails, and thus lowers the amount of thrust generated by the rails. Due to this, a temperature gauge is built into the internal computer targeting system, and the weapon will automatically shut down for 30-60 seconds after approximately 10 minutes of sustained fire. However, a trained assistant gunner in environmental armor can replace the rails in roughly 15 seconds.
The targeting sight was deliberately kept simple, with only passive nightvision, IR, UV and telescopic systems. However, the scope can magnify up to 50X, and the crosshairs are accurate at distances up to line of sight, bringing about the cyborg infantry motto: "If it can be seen, it dies."
The range and damage capability of this and its sister weapon (the R-670) led to ECM/ECCM crash programs designed to spoof targeting systems better, as line of sight was now a real engagement distance.
Theories set forth on the VirtualNet claim that a misfired railgun burst was responsible for the Tangees Orbital being destroyed as it orbited earth, however the math physics support that a rail gun round does not significant enough velocity to break free of Earth's gravitational field (11.2 km/s).
During the Apacolypse the most common problem with this weapon, as well as all rail guns, was micro-fine ferrous particles "fouling" the rails, as well as ash coating the rails being turned into a thin layer of volcanic glass on the rails, thus reducing the rails to a life expectancy of only a few hours of use before replacement.
During the Second Dark Ages, this weapon was a primary defender of settlements, trader convoys, and also used by cyborg defenders/mercs/explorers.
However, since the electromagnetic rails were never upgraded with modern materials before the fall, virtually all of these weapons were eventually discarded or scavenged for parts. Occassionally one shows up in caches or is found in the ruins. Additionally loss of "energized rounds" led to the rail gun having to be rewired to accept an outside energy source, often e-clips or direct link to power armor/city power grid, an expensive and time consuming modification.
Weight: 40 lbs
Length: 49"
Caliber: 6.25mm
Muzzle Velocity: 2455m/s
Maximum Range: 4700m (14100 ft/2.8 miles)(est)
Maximum Effective Range: 4000+m (12000+ ft/2 miles)(computer assisted), 1000m (3000 ft) (non-assisted)
Typical Combat Range: 1500m (4500 ft)
Magazine Capacity: 200 round short mag, 600 round drum, 200 round drum, and belt fed.
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