China Surpasses US Navy, Develops Operational Railgun

China is currently testing the world's most powerful naval gun and people with direct knowledge of a U.S. intelligence report say it will be ready for war by 2025.

Railguns use electromagnetic energy instead of gunpowder to propel rounds, and China's is capable of striking a target 124 miles away at speeds of up to 1.6 miles per second, according to the report. For perspective, a shot fired from Washington, D.C., could reach Philadelphia in under 90 seconds.

Railguns have long appeared on Russian, Iranian and U.S. military wish lists as cost-effective weapons that give navies the might of a cannon with the range of a precision-guided missile.

The rounds used in China's railgun cost between $25,000 and $50,000 each, according to the intelligence assessment. Though not an exact comparison since the weapons have different technologies, the U.S. Navy's Tomahawk cruise missile has an estimated price tag of $1.4 million each.

China's railgun was first seen in 2011 and underwent testing in 2014, according to people who spoke to CNBC on the condition of anonymity. Between 2015 and 2017 the weapon was calibrated to strike at extended ranges, increasing its lethality. By December 2017, the weapon was successfully mounted on a warship and began at-sea testing, a feat no other nation has accomplished.

The U.S. Navy's railgun, years away from being operational, remains a classified system still in development under the Office of Naval Research.

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This is what happens when politicians and military brass piss away technological advantage by fucking around.

US Navy Remains Committed to Railguns

Following a flurry of reports in December predicting the Navy's $500 million electromagnetic railgun experiment was dead on arrival, the chief of Naval Operations told lawmakers this week that the death of the program was greatly exaggerated.

"[We are] fully invested in railgun; we continue to test it," Adm. John Richardson told the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense during a Wednesday hearing on Navy and Marine Corps budget issues. "We've demonstrated it at lower firing rates and ... shorter ranges. Now we have to do the engineering to, sort of, crank it up and get it at the designated firing rates, at the 80- to 100-mile range."

Richardson was responding to a question from Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, who expressed concern about the proven capability of the Navy's railgun weapon, which has yet to leave its test site at Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division, Virginia.

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China Appears to Have Mounted a Railgun on a PLAN Ship

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This is what happens when you stupidly piss away a 30 year lead on tech.  Congress is to blame.  The Pentagon is to blame.  Current and former Presidents are to blame.

The US Navy is Getting Much Closer to an Operational Railgun

The Navy’s futuristic electromagnetic railgun is set to take a major developmental step forward this summer as developers work to increase the number of shots it can fire per minute and the power behind the system.

The railgun has been a pet project for the Navy for more than a decade since early testing of a prototype for a shipboard system began in 2006. The gun uses electromagnetic force to launch projectiles at high speeds, allowing the system to function without the powder mechanism conventional shipboard guns.

In theory, a railgun would be safer and potentially cheaper to fire than traditional weapons. Navy plans have called for installing the railgun on the Navy’s three DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyers, but it’s not clear when that will happen.

For now, officials with the Office of Naval Research are working to build the program up to its target capability envelope.

This summer and into next year, work will focus on increasing the power with which projectiles are fired to the target of 32 megajoules, and increasing what’s known as the rep rate to 10 shots per minute, or one every six seconds, said Dr. Tom Beutner, head of Naval Air Warfare and Weapons for ONR.

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Railgun Projectiles Being Adapted to 5" Naval Guns & US Army 155mm Artillery

The Pentagon’s office tasked with tweaking existing and developing military technology for new uses is pushing development of ammo meant for the electromagnetic railgun for use in existing naval guns and artillery pieces.

The initiative will recast existing weapons as potential air defense platforms through a change in ammunition.

About year and a half ago, researchers at the Pentagon’s Strategic Capabilities Office and inside the service realized that there was more short-term promise for not only the Navy but the Army to use the Hyper Velocity Projectiles (HVP) rounds overseen by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in both services existing powder guns, said SCO head William Roper said last week.

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Russians Claim to Working on Their own Railgun...but not Fielding it Soon.

The US newest weapon, the railgun, is of no surprise to Moscow and Russia is also developing one of its own, the first deputy of the Russian upper house’s Defense and Security Committee said Monday.

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According to the senator, the new weapon will not replace traditional weapons "even in the mid-term perspective," as much time needs to pass from the first tests to the mass production especially considering the high price of the production.

"Even if the Americans achieve a breakthrough in this direction, Russia does not have to answer with symmetrical measures. We have many opportunities we could employ if needed, in order not to allow the change of power balance in the world. The situation is under control," Klintsevich said.

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The US Navy's Railgun Effort Gets Profiled

A warning siren bellowed through the concrete bunker of a top-secret Naval facility where U.S. military engineers prepared to demonstrate a weapon for which there is little defense.

Officials huddled at a video screen for a first look at a deadly new supergun that can fire a 25-pound projectile through seven steel plates and leave a 5-inch hole.

The weapon is called a railgun and requires neither gunpowder nor explosive. It is powered by electromagnetic rails that accelerate a hardened projectile to staggering velocity—a battlefield meteorite with the power to one day transform military strategy, say supporters, and keep the U.S. ahead of advancing Russian and Chinese weaponry.

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US Navy Testing 32 MJ Railguns

The US Navy is gearing to take its futuristic Railgun out of the lab where it has been tested for to past eight years. In the next biennium, these mighty weapons will be tested in open firing ranges and eventually at sea, where the futuristic electromagnetic gun will be able to demonstrate its full capacity to fire projectiles at targets 50-100 nautical miles (92 – 185 kilometers) away.

“The Electromagnetic Railgun is among several disruptive capabilities that the Naval Research Enterprise is championing to ensure a dominant, capable and relevant naval force for the future.” Chief of Naval Research (CNR) Rear Adm. Mat Winter said.

A railgun weapon system includes the launcher, projectile; high-density pulsed power, and fire control system. A railgun weapon can launch multi-mission projectiles with shorter time-to-target and greater effectiveness at longer range.

The Navy is evaluating two EM Railgun models. A 32-megajoule prototype built by BAE Systems and the 32 megajoule Blitzer developed by General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS). The company has also developed a 3-megajoule railgun variant. In the future, the Navy plans to deploy railguns rated to 64-megajoule.

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General Atomics Commiting Over $50 Million to Developing its 10 MJ Railgun

General Atomics (GA) told IHS Jane's that it will have committed significant company funds to develop its 10 megajoule (MJ) Multimission Medium Range Railgun Weapon System (MMRRWS) from 2007 to the end of testing in 2017.

Speaking to IHS Jane's at the Navy League's 2016 Sea-Air-Space symposium in mid-May, company officials said that GA had committed funds in excess of USD50 million, but declined to be exact.

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US Army Testing Lasers, Railguns in Exercise at Fort Sill

A swarm of experts from across the nation assembled for a two-week experiment at Fort Sill trying out systems with the potential to provide service members with unlimited weapons capabilities. The event, called Maneuver Fires Integrated Experiment, spanned, April 11-22, and demonstrated two types of weaponry – one using lasers and the other using electricity-propelled projectiles to acquire and destroy targets.

According to John Haithcock, director of the Fires Battle Lab on Fort Sill, counter unmanned aerial vehicle missions are the current capability gap and the focus of the weapons experiment. By conducting the experiments early in the development process, Haithcock said developers could incorporate the insights of service members who would use the equipment and report on how to improve the interfaces.

Also, the event brought out not only future technologies but current technologies that may be integrated together. The result is an integrated weapon system with command and control sensors that can do multiple missions, he said.

“As opposed to having three pieces of equipment, we can use some of this new technology and integrate it into a single vehicle,” said Haithcock.

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US Navy Progress Report to Congress on Railgun & Laser Weapon Development

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US Navy may Postpone or Cancel the Railgun Demonstration at Sea

The Navy is considering accelerating developmental testing of its high-tech, long-range Electro-Magnetic Rail Gun by expanding the platforms from which it might fire and potentially postponing an upcoming at-sea demonstration of the weapon, service officials told Scout Warrior.

Such a strategy, service officials explain, might help speed-up testing of both the rail gun launcher and hypervelocity projectile. This approach might allow the rail gun hypervelocity projectile to fire a 5,000-mile and hour projectile from a wider range of existing maritime and land-based platforms such as deck-mounted Navy 5-inch guns and Army artillery systems.

“The Navy is studying the pros/cons of forgoing a 2016 at-sea demonstration of the Railgun system, with an eye toward potential opportunities for accelerating testing of Railgun and the associated hypervelocity projectile. Discussions are ongoing,” Matt Leonard, spokesman for Naval Sea Systems Command, told Scout Warrior.

Navy officials now explain that this planned at-sea demonstration may be delayed. This might help weapons developers further accelerate development of both the gun launcher and the hypervelocity projectile it fires. While plans for the weapon’s development are still being deliberated, one possibility may the integration of the projectile onto existing weapons platforms such as the Navy’s deck-mounted 5-inch guns or Army Paladin self-propelled howitzers which fire artillery.

As a result, postponing the at-sea demonstration may help Navy developers accelerate testing of both the gun launcher and projectile, enabling them to explore firing from a range of different platforms.

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US Navy to Test Fire Railgun on USNS Trenton Later This Year

The Navy plans to test-fire a deadly high-tech, long-range electromagnetic weapon against a floating target at sea later this year – as part of the fast-paced development of its new Electromagnetic Rail Gun.

The rail gun uses an electromagnetic current to fire a kinetic energy warhead up to 100 miles at speeds greater than 5,000 miles an hour, a speed at least three times as fast as existing weapons.

In the upcoming test, the kinetic energy projectile will seek to hit, destroy or explode an at sea target from on-board the USNS Trenton, a Joint High Speed Vessel, service officials said.

The test shots, which will be the first of its kind for the developmental, next-generation weapon, will take place at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.

During the test, the rail gun will fire a series of GPS-guided hypervelocity projectiles at a barge floating on the ocean about 25 to 50 nautical miles away,

The weapon will be fired against a floating target, in an effort to test the rail gun’s ability to destroy targets that are beyond-the-horizon, Navy officials said.

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US Navy may Swap Railguns for Advanced Gun System on USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG 1002, Zumwalt Class)

One of the prime attributes of the DDG 1000 Zumwalt-class destroyers is the design’s 78-megawatt integrated power system, able to switch electrical power between propulsion, sensor and weapon systems. It’s long been touted as the best platform to field new energy-gobbling weapons like rail guns and lasers.

A year ago, however, it appeared the first ship that might carry a rail gun to sea might be a joint high speed vessel (JHSV) fitted with a temporary installation. Briefers at naval exhibitions spoke publicly of the plans, and at least one model of the proposed demonstration was on display.

Plans for the at-sea demonstration remain in place, officials said, but it’s looking more likely that a test using an expeditionary fast transport (EPF) — the new designation for JHSVs — won’t take place at least until 2017, if at all.

“What I’m finding is if I go ahead with the demo it will slow my development,” Rear Adm. Pete Fanta, director of surface warfare, said during a Dec. 30 interview at the Pentagon. “I would rather get an operational unit out there faster than do a demonstration that just does a demonstration.


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Fanta is eying the number two main battery position on the destroyer Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG 1002), third and last of the Zumwalt class, as a prime candidate to take the first at-sea rail gun. The ship, under construction at Bath Iron Works, carries two 155mm Advanced Gun Systems (AGS) in those positions.

“Would I like it on DDG 1002? Yes. That would be my goal,” Fanta said, noting he has looked at installing an operational rail gun just before the ship “gets ready to go to its first deployment. I need to be able to have a power generation, a power transference and the barrel round integration to work for that level of integration to get out there.”

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Have Sting: the Giant Nuclear Powered Railgun the US Considered Building

A long time ago in an era much like ours, the United States poured billions into its “Star Wars” missile defense program. What those billions actually bought is still highly classified, so much so that we know very little about the various exotic space weapons conceived during the late Cold War.

One of those concepts — “Have Sting” — would have been the biggest gun in the solar system … had it ever been made.

Aerospace historian Scott Lowther has published some excellent diagrams of Have Sting, a proposed orbital railgun the size of the International Space Station. Having studied a General Electric report on the project, Lowther deduced a fair amount about the cannon’s characteristics.

“This vehicle appears to have everything such a system would need, from power to attitude control, sensors to thermal control,” Lowther said.

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US Navy to Shift to Offensive Capabilities in Development

The Program Executive Office for Integration Combat Systems will release a first-ever 30-Year Combat Power Plan to accompany the 30-Year Shipbuilding Plan in the spring, outlining how the Navy will outfit its platforms and network its sensors to keep up with the threat environment and technological advances.

The 30-year plan will help align various communities in the Navy, as well as industry and lawmakers, to encourage for the right research and development, the right systems engineering and the right investments in people and infrastructure, PEO IWS Rear Adm. Jon Hill told USNI News in a Nov. 24 interview.

Trying to plan for 30 years out is a challenge, he said. Satellites and space will become more important, but it is unclear how the Navy could best leverage it. Cyber will be important, but only time will tell how much it will affect defensive and offensive operations. Directed energy and supersonic weapons could eliminate the need for dangerous propellants on ships, but only if researchers can advance current technology so that lasers become powerful enough and hyper velocity weapons fast enough.

What is certain, Hill said, is two things: the Navy needs to increase its offensive capability, and it needs to effectively operate an entire netted force rather than just individual ships and planes. Both those future requirements will necessitate a new way of thinking, and for that reason the timing is right for a 30-year combat power plan.

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The Report to Congress on the US Navy's Laser and Railgun Programs

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A DIY Plasma/Railgun

27 kilojole, 250 lbs DIY Railgun

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The US Navy Report on Progress on Railgun, Laser and Hypervelocity Projectiles (Again)

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