AP Mk-8 Projectile Kinetic Energy vs. Five 80 mph Locomotives or 360 Fords at 85 mph
IMAGINE THE DESTRUCTION THAT WOULD BE CAUSED BY A 250,000 LB. TRAIN ENGINE SMASHING INTO A BUILDING
A diesel electric locomotive moving down the track has a scary amount of kinetic energy.
Consider General Electric's very successful EMD GP38-2 250,000 lb. diesel-electric of which
over 2200 were built. It weighs 250,000 lbs and at 80 miles per hour has 72 megajoules (MJ) of energy. That is same amount of kinetic energy as 72 Ford Focuses traveling at 85 mph. Needless, to say the destructive potential of that kind of energy is immense.
THE MASSIVE KINETIC ENERGY IOWA CLASS MARK 8 SUPER HEAVY PROJECTILE
Now consider the AP Mark 8 Super heavy projectile fired by Iowa Class battleships. The 2700 lb. projectile fired from the Iowa Mark 7 16" 50 gun has a muzzle velocity of about 2520 FPS and a muzzle energy of 360 megajoules (MJ). Or equivalently, it has the same kinetic energy as five 250,000 lb GE locomotives traveling at 80 mph or 360 Ford Focus automobiles traveling at 85 mph. Another comparison would be the Navy's experimental railgun projectile that has 32 MJ at the muzzle.
Using an energy optimized ballistic trajectory, even 20 miles down range, the Mark 8 still retains a whopping 207 MJ of kinetic energy. Suffice it say that there is no ship, and very few structures, that that aren't going to be seriously damaged by that amount of kinetic energy. And because it a solid, incredibly tough projectile, it is almost impossible to shoot down as normal anti-missile defenses are designed to destroy comparatively flimsy missiles.
Of course the above illustration also shows the massive difference in destructive force between a typical train engine and a car.
Comments