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U.S. Navy prepares to test railgun weapon in December.
The U.S. Navy is issuing a noise advisory for the Naval Surface Warfare Center areas as military engineers will conduct live-fire tests of the railgun weapon system from Wednesday, Dec. 2, through Friday, Dec. 4.
A noise advisory has been issued by Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division while the center prepares for upcoming tests at the Potomac River Test Range and the Explosive Experimental Area (Pumpkin Neck).
“These facilities are used by our military to conduct munitions testing and should be avoided while testing is in progress,” said in the noise advisory.
Source: DefenseBlog
US Navy railgun began its development since 90s. The US Navy is hoping to use the weapon as the future of defensive technology on their battleships.
Wikipedia Article for this weapon system notes that:
As of 2020, railguns have been researched as weapons utilising electromagnetic forces to impart a very high kinetic energy to a projectile (e.g. APFSDS) rather than using conventional propellants. While explosive-powered military guns cannot readily achieve a muzzle velocity of more than ≈2 km/s, railguns can readily exceed 3 km/s.
For a similar projectile, the range of railguns may exceed that of conventional guns. The destructive force of a projectile depends on its kinetic energy and mass at the point of impact and due to the potentially high velocity of a railgun-launched projectile, their destructive force may be much greater than conventionally launched projectiles of the same size.
The absence of explosive propellants or warheads to store and handle, as well as the low cost of projectiles compared to conventional weaponry, come as additional advantages
