Navy Fires Electromagnetic Cannon

According to a US Department of Defense press release, the US Navy successfully tested a powerful rail gun at its Naval Surface Weapons Center in Dahlgren, Virginia this Thursday. The weapon, still in the development stage, propelled a seven pound aluminum slug to 5640 mph before it slammed into a target backed by tons of sand 20 meters away. According to testers at the facility, the metal slug impacted with such force that only tiny fragments remained.

Defense officials state that over 10 megajoules of electricity were fed into the rail gun breaking all previous power records for this class of weapon. The energy came directly from the electric power grid and it took over 5 minutes to charge the rail gun's capacitors. The capacitors then instantly dumped their stored energy to fire the slug.

Often mentioned in science fiction stories and popularized by video games, a rail gun uses electricity to drive a projectile along a rail at high speeds before ejecting it into the air. They have captured the imagination of readers and gamers for years, primarily, due to their ability to cause amazing destruction by firing tiny pellets at unimaginable speeds. Conventional firearms and cannons use explosive chemical energy to produce a similar effect. But conventional weapons can't achieve anywhere near the kind of velocity a rail gun can produce. For example, an M 16 rifle shoots a bullet at a speed of around 1900 mph compared to 5000 + mph from a rail gun. With the added velocity, the Navy is hoping the weapons will increase range and destructive power with smaller, lighter projectiles.