Navy's electromagnetic railgun project progressing.

• Author: Tadjdeh, Yasmin

The technology behind the Navy's railgun--an advanced cannon that engineers believe could increase a ship's firepower at a fraction of the cost of typical munitions --is moving forward.

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"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. The "railgun is capable of launching projectiles at speeds far beyond the capability of conventional gun technology and represents a revolutionary leap in naval gun technology."

The system--which has been in development for more than a decade --could allow the Navy to defeat incoming missiles, unmanned aerial systems and swarms of attacking boats, he said in an email to National Defense. It could be employed for naval surface fire support, anti-surface warfare and air and missile defense missions.

The railgun uses magnetic fields generated by electricity to accelerate a metal conductor between two rails that then launch a projectile. The system eliminates the need for gun propellant or rockets, allowing additional rounds to be in the ship's magazine, providing the ability to engage more targets, Boucher said.

"Reducing explosive loads aboard ship--no gun powder, rockets or high explosives--also makes the ship less susceptible to catastrophic battle damage," he said.

Additionally, the system makes economic sense because the cost per engagement "is a fraction of opposing threat weapons, shifting cost burden to the attacking forces," he said.

Projectiles are fired at speeds between Mach 5.9 to 7.4, according to a Congressional Research Service report titled, "Navy Lasers, Railgun and Hypervelocity Projectile: Background and Issues for Congress."

The Navy contracted BAE Systems and General Atomics to each create a prototype railgun system.

"The two industry-built prototypes are designed to fire projectiles at energy levels of 20 to 32 megajoules, which is enough to propel a projectile 50 to 100 nautical miles," according to the report, which was written by naval analyst Ronald O'Rourke.

Boucher said "significant progress" is being made on the effort.

The current phase of the railgun's development, which began in 2012, is focused on the systems' repetition, or "rep-rate" capability, he said. That includes the development of a tactical prototype gun barrel and pulsed power systems that have...