The basic operation of a cannon has remained unchanged for centuries: projectile and explosive charge. But if we focus exclusively on the kinetic energy of the projectile to cause damage, modern paths lead to the electromagnetic cannon, better known as the railgun. The US Navy invested entire years of work in a viable design, and so far everything seems to indicate that it will reach active service. In the coming months, the cannon will undergo rate-of-fire tests, whose objective is to determine how many times it can fire per minute compared to a traditional cannon.
The firepower of battleships occupies a very important place in history, but that did not prevent their retirement in the face of the advance of aircraft carriers and guided missile technology. Today, battleships are little more than relics, museums, or training ships; however, interest in the effective destructive capability of their cannons, and in the possibility of minimizing their negative factors (weight, speed, explosive transport), never completely faded. One of the most important developments in this regard is the electromagnetic cannon or railgun. In simple terms, the railgun replaces explosives with an electromagnetic pulse.
Until now, railguns had never left the laboratory, or worked at a scale too small to be practical, but that is about to change. At the last "Naval Future Force Science and Technology Expo", the Office of Naval Research announced that the Navy's electromagnetic cannon is ready to begin advanced field demonstrations. What interests the Navy most is the rate of fire, that is, how many shots it can safely and steadily perform in a minute. Results were satisfactory in low-energy situations, but the plan is for this cannon to start hurling projectiles using 20 megajoules before the end of summer, and 32 megajoules next year.
The Navy envisions the cannon firing projectiles at a distance of one hundred nautical miles (185.2 kilometers), with a speed superior to Mach 6. Imagine the level of power projection that future fleets could deploy with cannons covering more than 150 kilometers and breaking six times the speed of sound...
