Weapons

Will China Develop a Deadly Railgun Before America (And Should Anyone Care)?


Last month the United States Navy scaled back its efforts to develop and electromagnetic railgun (EMRG), a weapon that wouldn't be out of place in a futuristic science fiction movie or video game. To date the U.S. Navy has spent some $500 in RYD efforts. The Navy's EMRG project was first conceived in 2003.

Across the Pacific, Chinese efforts to develop a ship-mounted EMRG is still moving forward, and last year it was reported that such a weapon could be "capable of striking a target 124 miles away of speeds of up to 1.6 miles per second."

EMRG is unlike traditional artillery-based weapons in that it utilizes no gunpowder. It is essentially a large electric circuit that is made of three parts including a power supply, a pair of parallel rails and a moving armature. Electrical currents generate magnetic fields that can accelerate a projectile along two rails. The power supply is actually rather basic and is just the source of electric current – and in this case is in the millions of amps.