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Railgun

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Railgun[9]

The Railgun is a powerful Tau Rail Weapon used on Battlesuits, vehicles and starships.

Overview

At its most basic form the railgun is a linear accelerator using standing wave acceleration along a number of cylindrical superconductive electrodes surrounding a barrel.[5b] For suits like the Broadside Battlesuit and vehicles like the Hammerhead Gunship, this technology is used to propel a solid slug at hypervelocity, capable of penetrating even the toughest enemy armour.[1][5a]

Hammerhead Railguns are also capable of firing a special bundle of sophisticated submunitions useful against large groups of enemies.[1][5b] The solid slug fired by these weapons will easily punch through the armoured front glacis of a Space Marine Predator[2a] but will not penetrate the same spot on a Baneblade, though multiple hits are capable of causing some damage to the side armour.[2b]

The Heavy Railguns found on Mantas and Tiger Shark variants are terrifying weapons, capable of taking out Super-heavy vehicles and even Warhound Scout Titans. They are also capable of firing a special submunition round, guided by a Drone-level intelligence and fitted with stabilising fins for extra lift and range in an atmosphere. While useful against ground targets, their primary purpose is for targeting the weakspots in enemy starship armour since they lack the same penetrating power as the standard slug.[3a][3b]

Despite Tau advances in superconductor technology, Railguns mounted on Tau Starships are of such monstrous size and require such large amounts of energy to fire that they are grouped into batteries and fired one barrel at a time sequential order, ensuring the first barrel is loaded and ready before it is charged again. They are considered comparable to Imperial Weapons Batteries.[4]

Patterns

Images

Related Articles

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External Links


Tau Empire Weapons
One-Handed Weapons Honour BladePulse Pistol
Two-Handed Weapons Pulse RiflePulse CarbinePulse BlasterRail RifleIon RifleLongshot Pulse RifleEqualisers
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Other Vehicle Weapons Ion CannonPlasma BombRailgunSeeker MissileSmart Missile SystemQuad Ion Turret
Auxiliary Weapons Kroot WeaponsNeutron Blaster
Grenades EMP GrenadePhoton Grenade


Projectile Weapons
Slug-Throwers Stub gunHand CannonStub RifleHeavy stubberShotgunRipper Gun
Auto-Weapons AutopistolAutogunAutocannonAssault cannonMacro cannon
Ork Grot BlastaSluggaShootaBig ShootaSupa-GatlerGigashoota
Eldar Shuriken WeaponryShrieker CannonDeath SpinnerShadow Weaver
Dark Eldar Splinter PistolSplinter RifleSplinter Cannon
Tau Empire Kroot Bolt ThrowerKroot rifleKroot hunting rifleKroot gunRail RifleRailgun