Pentagon Decides to Release the Railgun on the Battlefield

U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announced that against the backdrop of Russia’s “nuclear threats,” the U.S. will begin investing in new military technologies. First among those that Carter named was the electromagnetic cannon — the railgun. However, experts believe that all this talk about the railgun is simply an attempt by Carter to extort new funding from Congress.

“We’re investing in the technologies that are most relevant to Russia’s provocations, such as new unmanned systems, a new long-range bomber, and innovation in technologies like the electromagnetic railgun, lasers, and new systems for electronic warfare, space and cyberspace, including a few surprising ones that I really can’t describe here,” Carter announced on Sunday while speaking at the Reagan Defense Forum in the presidential library named after Ronald Reagan in California.

The Russian news agency TASS quotes Carter as saying that his greatest source of worry is caused by “saber-rattling (which) raises questions about Russia’s leaders’ commitment to strategic stability.”

In the opinion of the Pentagon chief, Moscow is challenging the international order. Washington will counter this with political means, but also with military and even economic means as well.

Of the new weapons mentioned by Carter, the railgun in particular attracted the attention of specialists. As expert Andrei Frolov, editor of the journal Weapons Export, explained in Vzglad magazine, this is a new type of weapon made of two rails which generate an electromagnetic field. Between the rails hangs a shell, a kind of solid projectile, which is then expelled at hypersonic speeds with the help of the electromagnetic field. “Accordingly, the striking power of the projectile is higher,” noted this expert.

The 21st Century Arsenal

According to Frolov, there is simply no open discussion on the development of weapons that are analogous to the U.S. railgun in Russia. “These are weapons based on new physical principles, the same way that lasers are, for example,” he added. “Regarding the Pentagon’s announcement about the railgun, I would sooner consider that to be a PR stunt. American military forces are seeking in this way to scare people — first and foremost their own voters and Congresspeople in fact — in order to extort funding for new weapons. It would be, without a doubt, incredibly expensive. Moreover, the methods of actually using such a weapon are not fully understood. After all, putting the railgun into action would require a massive energy source that would at the same time have to be compact. One cannot simply carry a nuclear power station along with them,” Frolov said.

According to this expert, the Americans plan to place similar installations on the U.S. Navy’s military warships. Given the size of the railgun, it is unlikely that they would be installed on an armored vehicle or a tank. “At this point, no, there won’t be that kind of small installation at first. Either there will be a stationary installation, or else it would be partially mobile,” Frolovo said.

Hypothetically, the railgun could be used as a missile defense system: it would shoot down outlying missiles flying toward the U.S., including nuclear warheads.

Use of the railgun would mean the elimination of the need to carry stocks of traditional sources of ammunition aboard naval vessels, which increases their durability in combat. Additionally, the relatively small size of shells used in the railgun allows for larger amounts of ammunition to be carried. The railgun’s effective range (kill range) is, in theory, 100 kilometers (approximately 62 miles). However, the weapon is still in development and the actual range remains to be seen.

It is possible to find information online about railguns that are much smaller and more mobile. Last month on the website Tech Cult, there were discussions about the inventor of a hand-held railgun. Reddit user “NSA_Listbot“ developed and assembled at home a working railgun, which was used to fire shells at speeds of 250 meters (approximately 820 feet) per second, as was reported in the online journal N+1.

The railgun — also called the mass driver or rail cannon — is an electromagnetic projectile launcher, the principles of which are explained by Lorentz force, in which electrical energy is converted to kinetic energy. The gun is made of two parallel electrical conducting rails, which are connected to a source of high-powered electrical supply.

'Learn to Control Hypersonic Munitions'

The first large railgun was built in the 1970s by Canadian and New Zealand specialists in Australia. By the mid 1980s, Soviet scientists had developed a railgun prototype. The speed of the gun’s plastic projectile, which was similar in size to a cork, achieved speeds of 9,960 meters (approximately 32,677 feet) per second and punched through three layers of duralumin (an aluminum alloy) of 4 centimeters (approximately 1.6 inches) in thickness.

In recent years, starting in 2005, the U.S. Navy set up a program for the development of rail-based guns (electromagnetic cannons) called “Velocitas Eradico.” In July of this year, it was announced that the program was taking a new step: the first trial conducted on a ship was planned for the start of the coming year. The U.S. began to study the possibility of integrating the new weaponry with the air defense system. Earlier, such weapons had only been considered for use against land and nautical targets.

Rear Adm. Bryant Fuller of the U.S. Navy added that in order to increase the effectiveness of electromagnetic projectile launchers, it is necessary to learn how to “control hypersonic munitions with the help of GPS satellite guiding systems.”*

Meanwhile, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus has criticized the program for developing electromagnetic projectile weapons. According to Mabus, these weapons “will finally be on board a U.S. Navy ship in 2016, but only for testing, and only after several decades of development — that's too long.” In February of last year, the U.S. Navy announced that new types of weapons would be able to fire at static targets from distances of 40-80 kilometers (approximately 25 to 50 miles).

By 2020, there are plans for these weapons to be equipped onboard Zumwalt-class destroyers. These battleships are being built with the specifications required for electromagnetic projectile weaponry in mind.

Members of the U.S. Navy liken the capacity of electromagnetic weaponry (the railgun) to that of a freight train smashing through a wall at speeds of 100 miles per hour. The speed of the projectiles used by the latest weapons can achieve velocities of six times the speed of sound, while the range of these guns is 180 kilometers (approximately 112 miles).

'Modernizing Our Nuclear Arsenal'

During his speech in California, Carter stated that the U.S. is considering “a new playbook,” which could be used to contain Russia, as well as taking steps to strengthen the collective security of NATO. In Carter’s words, the U.S. is “modernizing our nuclear arsenal” and investing in the development of modern weapons systems, including new strategic bombers and laser-powered weapons.

“We do not seek a cold, let alone a hot war with Russia. We do not seek to make Russia an enemy,” Carter assured. He stated that, as always, Washington intends to cooperate with Russia in those areas “where [our] interests align,” such as the example of the nuclear deal with Iran.

As Bloomberg reports, Carter nevertheless called Russia a “spoiler” on the world stage. The Pentagon chief insisted that, “In Europe, Russia has been violating sovereignty in Ukraine and Georgia and actively trying to intimidate the Baltic states. Meanwhile, in Syria, Russia is throwing gasoline on an already dangerous fire, prolonging a civil war that fuels the very extremism Russia claims to oppose.” At the same time, Carter stated that the U.S. will continue to aid Ukraine in preparing its military to combat insurgents in the Donbass region.

Not long before giving his speech in California, the Pentagon chief also stated that the U.S. is adjusting the size of its military commitments in Europe due to disagreements with Russia. However, as reported by Interfax, the U.S. does not have plans to return its forces to the size that they were during the Cold War.

It should be noted that in addition to Russia, Carter also named China as a country that violates the international order and is “increasing its military capability and trying to use this as a means to decide territorial disputes with its neighbors in the region.”** Nevertheless, Washington is looking to deepen its connection with Beijing on all fronts, including military.

Meanwhile, Russia is also quickly modernizing its weaponry. During the summer, President Vladimir Putin stated that Russia’s nuclear arsenal will swell to include more than 40 intercontinental ballistic missiles. The head of state specified that if someone decides to threaten Russia, Russia will have to aim its weapons at the country from which this threat emanates.

*Editor’s note: This quote, although accurately translated, could not be independently verified.

**Editor’s note: This quote, although accurately translated, could not be independently verified.