Some times the guys over at the Department of Defense get something very right – this is one of those times:
A theoretical dream for decades, the railgun is unlike any other weapon used in warfare. And it’s quite real too, as the U.S. Navy has proven in a record-setting test today in Dahlgren, VA.
Rather than relying on a explosion to fire a projectile, the technology uses an electomagnetic current to accelerate a non-explosive bullet at several times the speed of sound. The conductive projectile zips along a set of electrically charged parallel rails and out of the barrel at speeds up to Mach 7.
The result: a weapon that can hit a target 100 miles or more away within minutes…
And married to other technology we have, it can hit that target with pin-point accuracy. And the Navy hopes to eventually extend the range to 200 miles.
This gun, perfected and deployed, will ensure US naval dominance in the 21st century. Everyone will have to play catch up with us and we’ll already be several steps ahead on the latest refinements of the technology. With this weapon, we not only dominate the seas, but all land masses within about 150 miles from the sea…which is where, as it turns out, most people in the world live.
The Navy hopes to have a deployed weapon by 2025 – as we’ve only spent $211 million and we’re a good ways along, I’d like to see if we can get it by 2020, or even a bit earlier. This is a game-changing weapon: we can use it to entirely dominate an enemy’s coasts; destroy their naval forces from hundreds of miles away; shoot down ballistic missiles. We will, once again, become the un-attackable (by conventional means) Great Power, and thus regain complete diplomatic and military freedom of action.
Let’s hurry this one up…
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