US Navy
An artist rendering illustrates the Office of Naval Research-funded electromagnetic railgun installed aboard the joint high-speed vessel USNS Millinocket, the vessel initially expected to be used for sea trials.
- The US Navy is talking about finally testing its railgun aboard a warship, which would be a milestone achievement for the struggling program.
- The Navy's railgun, the product of more than a decade of research costing more than $500 million, was expected to be tested in 2016, but the test was delayed.
- The US is not the only country chasing this technology. China has already managed to arm a warship - the Type 072III Yuting-class tank-landing ship "Haiyang Shan" - with a railgun.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
The US Navy is planning to finally test the electromagnetic railgun it has spent years and hundreds of millions of dollars developing aboard a warship, according to new documents detailing the service's testing and training plans.
Unlike conventional guns, a railgun uses electromagnetic energy rather than explosive charges to fire rounds farther and at six or seven times the speed of sound.
"The kinetic energy weapon (commonly referred to as the rail gun) will be tested aboard surface vessels, firing explosive and non-explosive projectiles at air- or sea-based targets," the Navy's 1,800-page Northwest Training and Testing Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Assessment revealed.
The Seattle Times, followed by Task & Purpose, was the first to report the Navy's latest testing plans and the possibility of a milestone achievement for the railgun program.
The Navy, which has spent more than a decade and at least $500 million trying to build a working railgun, was initially expected to conduct a sea test of this new weapon aboard the Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transport vessel USNS Trenton at Eglin Air Force Base's maritime test range in the summer of 2016.
That test never took place. Instead, the Navy chose to continue testing the weapon on land. If the Navy's new testing and training plans are approved, sea trials for the railgun could take place as early as next year. It's unclear what type of test platform might be involved.
Should the Navy test its railgun at sea, it will be a major achievement for a program that has struggled for quite some time now. When asked about the program earlier this year, the best answer Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson could offer was: "It's going somewhere, hopefully."
The US is not the only country chasing this technology. Another clear competitor is China, which has already managed to arm a warship - the Type 072III Yuting-class tank-landing ship "Haiyang Shan" - with a railgun. The weapon is believed to have been put through some preliminary sea trials.
Read More: A Chinese warship armed with an electromagnetic railgun appears to have set sail
It is unclear how far along the Chinese railgun program is, but the competition is on. Chinese media proudly boasted in January that "China's naval electromagnetic weapon and equipment have surpassed other countries and become a world leader."
The railgun is a curious weapon, one that some naval affairs experts feel offers prestige to the innovator but little military advantage to the warfighter, no matter who gets their first.
"It's not useful military technology," Bryan Clark, an expert with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and former US Navy officer, previously told Business Insider, arguing that it is a poor replacement for a missile. "You are better off spending that money on missiles and vertical launch system cells than you are on a railgun."
So far, the most impressive thing to come out of the US Navy's railgun research is the hypervelocity projectile, which the Navy has tested using the Mk 45 five-inch deck guns that come standard on cruisers and destroyers.
The Army is also looking at the HVP for its 155 mm howitzers.