Railgun

Tau Portal

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]

In recent times efforts to miniaturize Railgun technology has produced the Rail Rifle, a sniper rifle used by Tau Pathfinders and Sniper Drones.

Images

Broadside Battlesuit with twin-linked Railguns

Hammerhead Gunship with Railgun

KX139 with Heavy Rail Cannon

Related Articles

• Projectile Weapons
• Tau Weaponry (List)

External Links

• Railguns in the real world.

Sources

• 1: Codex: Tau Empire (7th Edition), pg. 117, Rail Weapons
• 2: Courage and Honour (Novel) by Graham McNeill
  • 2a: Chapter Twelve
  • 2b: Chapter Thirteen
• 3: Imperial Armour Volume Three - The Taros Campaign
  • 3a: Pg. 208
  • 3b: Pg. 198
• 4: Battlefleet Gothic Armada, Pg. 98
• 5: Codex: Tau Empire (4th Edition)
  • 5a: ^{[Needs Citation]}
  • 5b: pg. 30