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‘Record’ rail gun test today

The Navy plans a “record-breaking” test shot of its developmental electromagnetic railgun Thursday at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Va.

The gun fires a projectile with electricity, rather than gunpowder. A shell is launched at Mach 7 through the electromagnetic rails into the atmosphere for about one minute, flies out of the atmosphere for four minutes, and then descends to Earth toward its target at Mach 5 in approximately one minute. The projectile is guided using the Global Positioning System.

In November, defense contractor BAE Systems delivered a 32-megajoule laboratory gun and launcher to the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren. A joule is the work needed to produce one watt of energy for one second — a megajoule is 1 million joules. Eventually, the Navy wants to produce a 64-megajoule railgun that will be able to hit targets on land from over 200 nautical miles away.

The test firing Thursday will expend far less energy than the lab gun is designed to handle, but will exceed the eight megajoule output attained in a previous test.

“More than 75 [railgun] firings have occurred at the Dahlgren facility this year, but this firing event is the next step forward in the development of this technology as the gun will be fired at over 10 [megajoules] of energy — a power level never before achieved by an [railgun],” according to a statement by the Office of Naval Research.

The previous record of 9 megajoules is held by the Center for Electromagnetic Materials and Devices at the University of Texas, according to ONR. The Institute for Advanced Technology, also at the university, certifies electromagnetic railgun launches.

As the Navy gun is tested, the amount of energy the gun uses is being increased, Roger Ellis, the EM railgun deputy program manager for ONR, told Navy Times in August 2007.

The program wants to demonstrate more than 100 shots by fiscal 2011. The objective is to fire 3,000 rounds per gun barrel. The barrels should be changeable onboard ship, according to program officials.

Officials say an EM railgun onboard a ship could increase ship design options because the gun weighs less and requires less infrastructure than traditional guns that use gunpowder and magazines.

Traditional fire-protection and ammunition-handling requirements are not necessary using an electromagnetic-pulse power system, Ellis said.

The end result could be a more cost-effective and highly lethal weapon, program manager Elizabeth D’Andrea said at an industry conference in August, adding that the railgun program strives to provide “missile ranges at bullet prices.”

The Navy plans to have an EM railgun onboard a ship, potentially its next-generation cruiser CG(X), between 2020 and 2025.

The Marine Corps is particularly interested in the EM railgun because it could provide high-speed, over-the-horizon fire support from the sea.