Initiated back in 2005, the US Navy’s Electromagnetic Railgun program has been pursuing a wartime “game changer” for well over a decade.
According to the Office of Naval Research, the EM Railgun launcher is “a long-range weapon that fires projectiles using electricity instead of chemical propellants. Magnetic fields created by high electrical currents accelerate a sliding metal conductor, or armature, between two rails to launch projectiles at 4,500 mph (Mach 5.8).” This week the ONR released a video after recent improvements increased the projectile velocity to speeds over Mach 6 and launch distance over 100 nautical miles.
In 2012 the ONR began Phase II of the EM Railgun project focusing on improving the weapon’s capability for sustained fire. Thermal management has been a primary factor limiting the weapon’s rate of fire. Massive amounts of heat are created by the electricity powering the weapon and the friction as the projectile is fired. According to a 2014 statement to the Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee by Chief of Naval Research Admiral Matthew Klunder “Barrel life has increased from tens of shots to over 400, with a program path to achieve 1000 shots.”
According to Inside Defense, the Navy hopes to have the EM Railgun firing at a rate of 10 round per minute before 2018. The undated video released by ONR last week shows the weapon firing at about 7 rounds per minute with a barrel lifespan of more than 3000 rounds, which is short of the goal, but a huge improvement from the 400 round lifespan in 2012.
Watch the ONR video below to see the latest version of the experimental EM Railgun in action.