![]() The primary Japanese contractor on the program is Japan Steel Works, and Mishima said he has encouraged its executives to reach out to counterparts in the United States such as BAE Systems and General Atomics to see if they could join the program.īAE Systems was the primary contractor on the U.S. We have strengths, for example, constructing the rails - in material sciences,” he said. “We could use help with the guidance system and power storage,” he said. defense contractors could join the program, he said in an interview. When pressed for details, he said the agency has been doing basic research on the technology for the past 10 years, but it could use help bringing the technology over the finish line. Shigenori Mishima, vice commissioner and chief technology officer at the Japanese Ministry of Defense’s Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency, listed a railgun as one of the military’s top research and development priorities at the DSEI Japan conference recently. The velocity results in such a powerful impact, explosives are not needed to cause considerable damage.ĭespite the concept being around more than a century, no militaries have successfully fielded a railgun. Japan’s Ministry of Defense is looking to partner with the United States on a railgun program that could be used to counter hypersonic weapons, a senior Japanese official told National Defense recently.Ī railgun uses electricity flowing between two parallel conductors to shoot a non-explosive projectile at high speeds over long distances. The U.S Navy, after spending some 15 years and $500 million developing a railgun for destroyers, gave up on the idea in 2021. Army, have attempted to field the potentially game-changing weapon of war. Since then, everyone from the Nazis in Germany, to China, Russia, India and the U.S. These use linear motors for cheerfully slinging both naval aircraft into the air and unsuspecting trucks into the water at high velocity.General Atomics illustration CHIBA, Japan - It’s a “futuristic” technology that has been in development off and on for more than 100 years.Įlectromagnetic railguns were first conceived in France during World War I. Now it seems the US Navy, at least, is content to counter the prospect of a Chinese naval supergun with other projects and capabilities currently in development.įor those who continue to yearn for huge seaborne electromagnetically propelled projectiles – and let's face it, who doesn't? – there is still the prospect of the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System fitted to the USN's new Gerald R Ford-class aircraft carriers. China has already conducted sea trials with a shipboard railgun mounted on a Type 072III-class landing ship as far back as 2018, a fact which had been spurring US railgun development along. The cancellation of the EMRG does not mean that naval railguns are impossible, however. ![]() Ultimately, despite its promise, the US Navy has seemingly lost patience and dumped the EMRG into the "valley of death", the gap between development and actual use that can befall promising technology which faces major practical challenges, funding problems or research issues. Its capabilities also unhelpfully fell somewhere between advanced ammunition for conventional weapons and those of a number of new, longer-ranged hypersonic missiles currently in development.Ī report from Popular Science also noted that "developmental challenges included the stalled development of a universal common mount," meaning that despite its lengthy and expensive gestation, the Navy had not even got so far as creating a way of fitting the weapon to a ship yet. The project had also faced declining funding and cancellation of the Gun-Launched Guided Projectile steerable ammunition which was being specially built for it. I'll build a Hyperloop railgun tube-way in Texas, Elon Musk vows.Brit semiconductor tech ended up in Chinese naval railgun – report.US Air Force announces plan to assassinate molluscs with hypersonic missile.Russia spoofed AIS data to fake British warship's course days before Crimea guns showdown.While formidable, the weapon never managed to reach its promised range and its prodigious power requirements meant that at the time the programme was suspended, of its current fleet only the US Navy's three weird-looking Zumwelt-class stealthy destroyers generated enough electricity to power the EMRG.
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