Advertisement

US NAVY: Experimental role

The US Navy has announced plans to install a prototype electromagnetic railgun for further development aboard the Joint High Speed Vessel USNS Millinocket. The tests, slated for 2016, are intended to help mature the future tactical design of the weapon system, regarded by the chief of naval research as the future of naval combat.

With the potential to fire projectiles out to a range of 110 nautical miles, and at a fraction of the cost of a missile, railguns work by using an electromagnetic force, known as the Lorenz Force, to rapidly accelerate and launch a projectile between two conductive rails. A precise high-power electric pulse is delivered to the rails where the magnetic field is generated.

Aside from their small operating costs, railguns also have the safety advantage of not requiring gunpowder or high explosive warheads. Projectiles are launched at such high velocity – around mach seven – that the target is destroyed by kinetic energy alone.

Ships Montly - January 2024

Ships Monthly July issue out now

SHIPS MONTHLY July  2025 The July 2025 issue of Ships Monthly is out now, and is packed with all the usual news and outstanding articles...
Advertisement

Related articles

Ships Monthly July issue out now

SHIPS MONTHLY July  2025 The July 2025 issue of Ships Monthly is out now, and is packed with all...

Damen delivers ASD Tug 3010 ICE to Sundsvall Hamn

Damen Shipyards Group has delivered an ASD Tug 3010 ICE to Sweden’s Sundsvall Hamn (Port of Sundsvall). The...

Ocean Network Express latest newbuilding ONE Singapore joins fleet

Ocean Network Express (“ONE”) cdelebrated the naming of ONE Singapore, the sixth vessel in a series of 20...

VARD Ships Lead on Cyber Resilience and Sustainability

VARD, the Norwegian subsidiary of the Fincantieri Group and one of the major global designers and shipbuilders of...