US Navy’s super powerful railgun project will probably be set to hold as the company developing the railgun seems to now be more interested in another project which is related to the railgun.
US Navy has been developing its railgun for many years and has spent over 500 million dollars on it since the year 2005. What makes the gun special is its ability to fire projectiles at over 7000 km/h which is 6 times the speed of sound. The railgun is a weapon which transforms electricity into kinetic energy when a normal weapon transforms chemical energy into kinetic energy.
This kind of a weapon needs special projectiles to achieve the outstanding speed and these projectiles are the reason why the developer isn’t as interested in the gun itself anymore. The developer of the railgun has seen the huge potential of the new hypervelocity projectiles and is now developing these further instead of the railgun. The reason for this is the fact that these projectiles can be used in many other weapons in addition to the railgun. The projectiles are basically 60cm long grenades which are capable to achieve speeds over 8000km/h. The US Navy states that the development of the railgun will be continued and the tests have been going as expected.
Cover photo and more information:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/military-tests-new-game-changer-10073014
Photo of projectile and more information about it:
https://news.usni.org/2016/07/18/pentagon-new-rounds-old-guns-change-paradigm-missile-defense-navy-army