Watch the US Navy fire its game-changing hypersonic electromagnetic railgun
The US Navy recently released footage of its first testfire of an electromagnetic railgun at their new terminal at Office of Naval Research and Naval Surface Warfare Center.
Railguns use 20 to 32 mega joules of electromagnetic energy to fire projectiles at seven to nine times the speed of sound, according to a Congressional Research Service report on the weapons.
Because they fire with electricity alone - not chemical explosives like conventional ammunition - railguns can potentially operate much cheaper and fire much much faster than weapons currently used by the Navy.
The Navy has long sought the technology as a potential game-changer for surface warfare, as China, Russia, and the US all race towards building hypersonic weapons that no ship can currently defend against. The newest classes of Navy ships, like the Zumwalt and Ford carriers, have been planned with outsized power generators in anticipation of the revolutionary weapon.
Despite looking like a typical cannon blast, the railgun only emits fire and sparks from metal components that become molten during the firing process that forces the components to fire at mind boggling speeds.
Watch the clip below:
But while projects like the railgun seem ready to solve the US Navy's most pressing problems, it has been undergoing testing since 2005 with no clear path to readiness in sight as of March 2017.
- Colon cancer rates are rising in young people. If you have two symptoms you should get a colonoscopy, a GI oncologist says.
- I spent $2,000 for 7 nights in a 179-square-foot room on one of the world's largest cruise ships. Take a look inside my cabin.
- An Ambani disruption in OTT: At just ₹1 per day, you can now enjoy ad-free content on JioCinema
- Indian heart beats inside Pakistani woman, 19-year-old from Karachi undergoes heart transplant in Chennai
- Rupee falls 7 paise to settle at 83.35 against US dollar
- Vegetable prices to remain high until June due to above-normal temperature
- RBI action on Kotak Mahindra Bank may restrain credit growth, profitability: S&P
- 'Vote and have free butter dosa': Bengaluru eateries do their bit to increase voter turnout