The US Navy makes steps into its quest to improve warships’ capabilities to shoot down in-coming missiles, as well as fire projectiles many miles away. Announced last year, the new program is called Hyper Velocity Projectile that will hasten the end of missile dominance. It profiles a warship weapon that can launch projectiles at Mach 10 without explosives.

Rail guns consist of two parallel metal rails, between which a projectile held in an armature is loaded, completing a circuit between them. A massive electrical current of the order of one million amperes is applied, creating an electromagnetic field, which in turn produces a force that accelerates the projectile along the rails.

A rail gun offers a number of potential advantages over traditional explosive projectile weapons. The accelerating force is applied for the entire time the projectile is between the rails of the launch device, as opposed to explosive forces which have a limited duration. This means much higher velocities can be reached - potentially Mach 10 at sea level, or more than three times the muzzle speed of a rifle bullet. This could result in it having a range 220 miles, which is around ten times further than any other gun.

Being non-explosive, Rail gun projectiles rely on their enormous speed to destroy the target and thus reduce the risk of a fire on board of a ship. Comparatively small and lightweight, they can be more readily transported and stored. The kinetic energy they deliver could do as much damage as a cruise missile enabling them to travel clean through a ship. High speeds mean projectiles are much less affected than conventional weapons by factors such as wind, allowing them to retain pinpoint accuracy across a large distance, rather than needing on-board trajectory correction, making them considerably cheaper.

The USS Arleigh-Burke (DDG-51) as a likely candidate test platform for sea trials.

The next phase is a pulsed power system for launching projectiles in rapid succession. Targeting a firing rate of six to ten 50mm rounds a minute; the naval power system is expected to be operational by 2025.

Providing cutting edge advantage
Electromagnetic rail guns, lasers and anti-torpedo torpedoes may be the key technologies necessary to ensure the continued viability of the U.S. Navy’s carrier strike groups when operating against an anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) environment, top former service officials told USNI News. «The real game-changer in all of this, is in my view, the electromagnetic rail gun», said Bob Work, chief executive officer of the Center for a New American Security. According to US Naval Institute (USNI) report (4) using a rail gun for defense would drastically reduce the cost-per-shot for the Navy when defending against mass salvos of guided cruise or ballistic missiles compared with an interceptor missile like a Standard Missile -3.

Perhaps more important, a warship can carry vastly more rail gun-rounds than it could ever hope to have missile tubes. The USNI cites retired Adm. Gary Roughead, former Chief of Naval Operations, who said that rail guns are a weapon inventory game-changer because of the projectiles’ size. According to the US Naval Institute’s article Work and Roughead Talk Fleet Protection (May 7, 2013), «The third crucial technology for the Navy is an anti-torpedo torpedo», Work said. «As the carrier battle group pushes into A2/AD networks in the littorals, the threat from submarines increases exponentially». The anti-torpedo torpedoes are smaller than the standard shipboard or helicopter-dropped 12.75-inch torpedoes, being about 9 inches in diameter. Work said that the threat to carrier battle groups is increasing without question — that has been anticipated since the mid-1990s. But if Navy can get electromagnetic rail guns, lasers and anti-torpedo torpedoes into service within the next decade, the carrier battle group will be able to operate deeper inside a contested environment.

True, Russia is planning further increases in its military spending, with draft budgets showing a 53% rise in real terms up to 2014. One year ago, President Vladimir Putin openly avowed an intention to radically expand and upgrade the Russian military. Today Russia has embarked on a path of military enhancement. Programs for re-equipping and fundamentally reforming the armed forces are being adopted and implemented. Is this policy consistent with emerging international realities?

There is much hue and cry raised over the US military across the board cuts. At that, defense consumes almost 20 percent of the U.S. budget. The country spends more on it than anything else. The United States with its massive spending budget is the principal determinant of the current world trend, and its military expenditure now accounts for just under half of the world total at 41%. As one can see, it fields new game changing weapons, and it does so today. So there is ground to believe the other states have a right for justified concern and adopting military policy to meet the demands of reality.