The United States Navy has received a 32-megajoule Electromagnetic Railgun from BAE Systems, and it will begin testing the weapon later in February.
Electromagnetic railguns uses electricity instead of chemicals (like gunpowder) to propel projectiles. Magnetic fields, created by high electrical currents, accelerate a sliding metal conductor between two rails to launch projectiles at 7,200 km/h to 9,000 km/h.
The Navy has been tinkering with the idea since 2005, and has spent more than $200 million (£130m) on tests. The project was almost terminated by the US senate in 2011, but a budget deal was struck to save the program.
The Navy's Office of Naval Research demonstrated a record-breaking 33-megajoule test fire with its own launcher in December 2010. But the military branch also awarded $10 million (£6.3 million) contracts to Raytheon, BAE Systems and General Atomics to give private firms a go at making electro-guns.
Britain-based BAE is first on the chopping block, and handed its prototype launcher to the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Virginia on 30 January.
The prototype kicks out 32-megajoules of energy. For sake of comparison, one megajoule of energy is equivalent to a typical car traveling at 100 miles per hour. It will be tested at a facility in Dahlgren, Virgina this February.
A second prototype launcher, this time built by General Atomics, will be delivered soon after.
In the meantime, the Navy is looking ahead to the next phase of the EM Railgun program. It wants to develop automatic projectile loading systems, and thermal management systems to increase the weapon's firing rates.
The ultimate goal of the project is to be able to fire projectiles 50- to 100-nautical miles (with expansion up to 220 nautical miles), which would be suitable for naval surface fire support, land strikes, cruise and ballistic missile defence, and surface warfare.
That's a long ways off, but "this is the next step toward a future tactical system that will be placed on board a ship some day," said Roger Ellis, program manager of EM Railgun.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
