The US Navy conducted a test of a railgun - a cannon, the acceleration of the projectile in which is given by electrical impulses, reports Lenta.ru with reference to Defense News. The tests, which took place on December 10, 2010, were considered successful. The new weapon is planned to be installed on promising warships of the US Navy, including the destroyers of the DDG-1000 Zimwalt project.
The test of the new weapon took place at the Dahlgren US Navy Surface Weapons Development Center. The weapons were tested at 33 megajoules. According to the calculations of the US Navy, this power allows you to shoot a metal projectile at a distance of up to 203.7 kilometers, and at the end point the blank accelerates to five Mach numbers (5.6 thousand kilometers per hour).
The test of the railgun was a record - the power of the gun was three times higher than that achieved during the first test in January 2008. This figure also became the largest in the entire history of the development of such weapons in the world. When exactly the US Navy intends to complete the creation of a promising electromagnetic gun is still unknown.
Railgun is a cannon that uses electromagnetic force to accelerate an electrically conductive projectile, which at the first stage of launch is part of an electrical circuit. The gun got its name thanks to two contact rails, between which the projectile moves, in contact with them. At present, the use of weapons on warships is impossible, since a significant amount of energy is required to fire, the firing accuracy is not yet great, and the device itself is too large.
