Velocitas Eradico (I, Who Am Speed, Eradicate)

Guns are so early 20^th century. Depending on country and culture, they may even be so 19^th century. Yes, they remain the primary means of personal self-defense for both military and civilian purposes. But for military needs, the large calibers mounted on wagons, trucks, trains and ships for about 100 years have been replaced by advanced weapons that can strike with pinpoint accuracy from remote distances.

Guided missiles and precision bombing ultimately eliminated battleships from the Naval Vessel Register. Even the world's largest gun ever built, the Schwerer Gustav (80 cm caliber; pictured left), was obsolete by the time it reached the battlefield, and is more of a footnote than anything else. In fact large caliber artillery experienced a relatively short duration of supremacy on the battlefield, from--at most-- the beginning of industrialization until the Atomic Age.

But new developments in a technology that's been touted for 20 years may put guns back on the front lines. There have been numerous media stories in recent years about the potential for railguns, and most concluded with a variation of "this technology needs further development before battlefield realization." They've done a good job capturing imagination due to the extreme destruction capable from one shot, which obliterates targets with nary an explosive.

Now the U.S. Navy is experimentally mounting a railgun onto a catamaran, known as a joint high-speed vessel (JHSV), to ascertain seaworthiness in hopes of integrating the weapon into a next-generation destroyer in 2018.

Despite only recently entering mainstream awareness the earliest incarnation of a railgun dates to a 1922 U.S. patent filed by Frenchman Louis Octave Fauchon-Villeplee, who created a gun that fired bullets with stabilizing fins. The concept of the railgun is the same today as it was then. Two long, parallel rails connected to a power supply, each representing an opposite pole. When a conductive projectile is placed between the rails the circuit is completed. Also created is a magnetic field that is directed at right angles away from the rails and armature, which ultimately is what provides kinetic force to the projectile. Higher energy along the rails creates an equivalent increase in projectile speed, and experimental projectile speeds of 20 km per second have been achieved.

However, materials science has lagged behind, as creating rails that resist the excessive thermal loads has proved troublesome. Current rates of fire are limited to about 2 or 3 per minute because of this challenge, even on the type the Navy plans to implement. Railguns also require immense electrical energy, in this instance 34 megajoules. Next-gen warships are the only platforms able to supply this type of power. However, such warships will also require a railgun that can communicate with planned weapons systems, as well as one that can be scaled to fit in available deck space. These are the obstacles that will hopefully be solved with the at-sea tests on the JHSV.

Why invest in such a troublesome technology? Sustainability and safety. One shot from a railgun will cost significantly less than a missile. It's also exponentially more powerful, in some cases obliterating armored vehicles before continuing to travel for miles. Since the projectiles aren't explosive themselves, they also don't present a risk to personnel or the ship.

Of course there are other applications for railguns, such as designs to launch space craft via a railgun system. Humans cannot survive the inertia that would be applied to a spacecraft projectile, but cargo could be supplied to space stations at a much lower cost. There is also the potential for using railguns to initiate inertial confinement nuclear fusion, where the guns will replace lasers to fire energetic plasma at a fuel. Such guns will need to be scaled down to a great degree.

While the Navy needs a new weapon, the world may gain new accessibility to space and maybe even a groundbreaking power source. For now, railguns should still be filed under "needs development."