Advantages
The chief advantage of a ram accelerator over a conventional gun is its scalability. In a normal gun, maximum pressure is exerted at the time of the initial charge detonation. As the projectile moves further down the barrel, the amount of acceleration upon the projectile decreases as the gas behind it expands, eventually reaching amounts trivial enough that a longer barrel is no longer justified (see internal ballistics). With a ram accelerator, the projectile is propelled primarily by the pressure generated by the reaction of the propellant gases burning just behind the projectile. This leads to constant pressure being put both on the gun and the projectile itself. Consequently, far longer barrels are possible than conventional guns, while still delivering a strong constant acceleration to the projectile.
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