Patent ID: 7111619

Claim:
A method for operating an electromagnetic coil gun system, comprising the steps of providing an electromagnetic coil gun system including a launcher comprising a barrel having a longitudinal bore therethrough, wherein the barrel has a breech end and a muzzle end, and a plurality of longitudinally extending electrical excitation coils arranged circumferentially around the bore of the barrel so that a magnetic field produced by an electrical current in each electrical excitation coil penetrates into the bore, wherein each electrical excitation coil is independently activated by the electrical current passed therethrough, and a projectile sized to be received within the bore of the barrel, wherein the projectile comprises a circumferential armature at a tail end thereof, and a nose end; loading the projectile into the bore with the tail end of the projectile adjacent to the breech end of the barrel; and firing the projectile from the barrel by the steps of producing a traveling sequence of propulsive currents in the electrical excitation coils moving in a direction from the breech end toward the muzzle end of the barrel, whereby a traveling propulsive magnetic field produced by the electrical excitation coils interacts with the armature of the projectile to propel the projectile in the direction from the breech end toward the muzzle end of the barrel, and simultaneously producing a traveling nulling magnetic field to at least partially nullify the traveling propulsive magnetic field at the nose end of the projectile.