Naval Railguns

Compared with propellant guns, railguns can fire at higher velocities and do not require gun propellant but use ships´ fuel. These features lead to important advantages, including shorter time of flight (important for ship defense), higher lethality on target (important for direct fire), and very extensive range capability (important for support of troops on shore). Such extended range capability also supports the sea-basing concept in which a forward-deployed battle group is able to operate far enough off shore to be safe while providing a long reach for distant targets. In this paper, the characteristics of the railgun systems needed for these applications are identified and discussed, leading to a definition of the most important science and technology objectives for near-term research programs