"So... laser weapons hadn't achieved the effect we imagined?"
Phineas stroked his chin. As a master weapon designer, he had to consider things more realistically.
The advantages of laser weapons were indeed obvious, but so were their disadvantages. Their range was difficult to increase; once the distance grew too great, they became nothing more than "flashlights."
Reaching the level of a gamma-ray burst was not very realistic.
By comparison, the old methods were actually highly cost-effective. In outer space, projectiles encountered very little resistance after leaving the barrel, giving them an extremely long range.
Phineas quickly slipped into work mode and pulled up a series of his own "amateur designs" from his materials database.
"Regarding Kinetic Cannons, I have ideas in three directions: Railguns, Coilguns, and the Reconnection Gun I've been researching recently—but all three technologies have insurmountable flaws, so compromises will be necessary."
All three belonged to the electromagnetic cannon family, though their design concepts differed slightly.
Simply put, creating a super electromagnetic cannon required solving several major problems:
First, the projectile and barrel should remain as contactless as possible. This was easy to understand—once a projectile moving at extremely high speed came into contact with the barrel, it would cause severe frictional ablation and serious hardware wear.
Second, the electronic circuitry should be simplified as much as possible. This was also easy to understand. As a weapon, the simpler it was, the better. Only then could its reliability be guaranteed, ensuring it would not fail at a critical moment. Why did everyone like the AK? Because it was reliable.
Third, overcoming Back EMF.
The Coilgun was the earliest proposed electromagnetic cannon. It consisted of Acceleration Coils and Projectile Coils. Its principle was that energized coils generated magnetic fields, and magnetic fields repelled one another. When alternating current passed