Officials at ARDEC declined to discuss the
railgun project.
SCO also has a project on gun-based missile defense, where we're taking the same hypervelocity smart projectile developed for the electromagnetic
railgun, and using it for point defense by firing it with artillery we already have in our inventory--including the five-inch guns at the front of every Navy destroyer, and also the hundreds of Army Paladin self-propelled howitzers.
Nine, a very high torque conduction motor based on the same
railgun technology.
In December, the
railgun produced a massive 33-megajoule blast, three times the power previously achieved.
"Electromagnetic weapons such as
railgun will play a critical role in the future of naval warfare by providing greater lethality and greater economy than existing weapons," said Tom Boucher, the system's program officer at the Office of Naval Research.
Electromagnetic
railgun technologies offer ground and surface naval forces the tantalizing promise of being able to strike targets with inexpensive projectiles from increased standoff ranges.
If we can provide shipboard defense at pennies a shot with a high energy laser, and bring multimission capability with a low cost projectile out of an EM
railgun , then we have truly changed the game.
Comparison of dynamic behavior of EMA-3
railgun under differently induced loadings, Mechanika 4(78): 31-37.
An electromagnetic
railgun offers a velocity previously unattainable in a conventional weapon, speeds that are incredibly powerful on their own.