Weapon Name- Plasma Rifle
Round Type- Xenon Plasma
Over-all length- 40 inches
Barrel length- 38 inches
Weight- 8.9 lb
Rate of Fire- 300
Feed Mechanism- Battery, Xenon Propellant
Round Capacity- ??
Effective Range- ??
Range- ??
Accuracy- ??
Accessories- Thermal Scope, Laser
Quick switch firing mechanism- Extra Trigger
Scope/Sights- Picatinny Rails, Thermal Scope
Muzzle Velocity- 3175 m/s
Firing System- Railgun
Miscellaneous/electronic information- The weapon is essentially a railgun that accelerates plasma at extremely high velocities, to make it useful as a firearm.
Basic Information
The weapon is essentially a railgun that accelerates plasma at extremely high velocities, to send the projectiles out to long ranges, and act like a firearm.
Somewhat ironically, railgun efficiency and power is more dependent on the batteries than the weight of the projectiles themselves. While Xenon propellant technically is what comes into contact with the target, the electrical storage for the batteries is more or less the most difficult part to achieve with the railgun. For starter's, even high quality railguns only possesses approximately 40% efficiency. Railguns make extensive use of electrical energy, and due to the fact that electric energy storage is generally less efficient in terms of overall mass compared to hydrocarbons or other contemporary fuels, the difficulty will be in finding decent batteries for the weapon. (Page 9) Lithium ion battery's possess .36 Mj to .95 Mj megajoules of energy per kilogram. Lithium ion capacitor's possesses .05 megajoules. Lithium titanate batteries can be recharged significantly faster than lithium ion, but possess approximately the same amount of energy per kilogram. The discharge/charge rate is approximately 90-95% for both, which implies an approximate loss of 10% efficiency for the conversion efficiency. This automatically implies a 36% efficiency, or a need for 2.8 times the energy than will end up at the muzzle. With an energy density of .05 megajoules per kilogram, and a requirement of 50 joules per shot, to accelerate a .01 gram projectile to 3,175 m/s, or 140 joules per shot, the weapon can store approximately enough energy for 360 rounds; with the additional lithium titanate battery and the container, this equates to approximately a 2.5 pound battery for the weapon to fire 360 rounds. For a .1 gram projectile, this would be 36 rounds; for a 1 gram projectile, a practical size, this would be approximately 3.6 rounds.
To provide substantially more energy, a hydrogen fuel cell can be utilized. With a conversion efficiency of 60%, it's possible for a kilogram of hydrogen fuel to produce 85.2 megajoules of energy, which is substantially more than lithium ion, or a lithium ion capacitor. While capacitor's are still necessary for the temporary storage of power, and thus transfer to the weapon's railguns, it is still possible to store significantly more energy in terms of weight than with lithium ion capacitor's alone. There is also the added weight of the fuel cell, itself, which more or less operates similarly to an engine in a car. Luckily, even efficient hydrogen fuel cell's are quite small, and are often stacked to form larger collective unit's, which makes them easier to miniaturize for more portable applications. Because this generates some latency however, transferring the energy of the fuel cell to the battery or capacitor can take time, and thus how much energy is present in the hydrogen does not ultimately determine how much energy can be used in a reasonable amount of time. The larger amount of fuel cells that are "stacked", the higher the charge rate usually is. An example unit could be 1.3 kilograms for 100 watts [1], all the way up to 20 for 1000 [2]. Ideally, you would utilize something such as the Aerostak 1000, which can produce 1000 watts, per second at roughly 2.3 kilograms. With ultralight versions, it's not impossible for the fuel cell to only make up approximately 3/4 to half the weight of the system, or, only double or quadruple the weight requirements for fuel. These more efficient systems often require substantially higher hydrogen purity levels, and are also substantially more expensive. Still, it is not impossible for a stand alone, hand held weapon to practically hold on to large volumes of projectiles; this would be roughly close to 6,000 rounds per detachable 2.5 pound magazine, or if the fuel cell was stored internally, 1.25 pounds for hydrogen itself. However, the weight of the pressurized container for storage could still add considerable weight.
For practical purposes, the power source is bested stored on the unit's back, such as in a backpack. For recharge time's, it's overall substantially more efficient if you stack all the fuel cell's, rather than reload the weapon individually with separate weapon's. Thus, stacking all the fuel cell's together is generally considered superior than having several smaller one's to load into the weapon, such as with standard magazines. It also makes the equipment cheaper and easier to handle. Rather than putting this on the weapon, which would increase it's weight by the weight of the fuel cell, or for practical considerations some 30-40 pounds, it is generally better to carry this separate from the weapon, say in a backpack, or spread out over the body in the form of a tactical vest, where magazines would ordinarily go. On top of this, a pressurized container would be requires, similiar to a scuba tank,
