The Navy's New Electric Railgun Is Absolutely Terrifying
Posted by LaraHeintz on Saturday, Feb 18, 2012
Normally I tend to ignore anything happening with military technology advancement, first of all because the fact that some of the most cutting edge scientific research goes towards creating better and more efficient human killing machines is terrifying. And, second of all, because anything promoting the military usually seems to be wrapped in a neat package of blind patriotic promotion, where abnormally detailed bald eagles fly around, and everybody looks like they’ve been photoshopped to look like Captain America.
That being said, the Office of Naval Research has been testing some sort of new long-range projectile launcher or something that uses electricity instead of chemical propellants. See, most long-range missiles today rely on complex chemical concoctions to launch projectiles, but this device, called an EM railgun uses magnetic fields created by high electrical currents to accelerate a sliding metal conductor between two rails to launch projectiles at 4,500 mph to 5,600 mph. Awesome right? The first industry-built 32-Megajoule prototype demonstrator created by BAE Systems arrived at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in a shiny package on January 30, and can now be tested for real combat implementation. In case you didn’t know, a mega-joule is equivalent to a one-ton car travelling at 100 miles per hour. Imagine 32 of those coming straight at your ship. Or village.
Now I realize that I’m the last person to comment on what the military develops, and really warfare and the technology advancement of weapons is a reality not just in the US but around the world. Still, I can’t help but look at this 10 second video of a long-range projectile being launched at 5,600 mph in a massive fire storm and not feel slightly uncomfortable at the reminder of what some of the best engineers in the world help develop on a daily basis.
That shit is scary.
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About the author
Grad Student in Media Studies with a penchant for pumpkin donuts, DIY electronics, and a nice cup of coffee.
