...propelling its 7-pound projectile with electric current along parallel rails, has a range of 250 nautical miles and packs the same punch as a more-expensive Tomahawk cruise missile. It could take down an entire building with one shot. Plus, dangerous explosives aren't necessary, because this beast does the equivalent of throwing big rocks at 11,500fps. That's gotta hurt. *
[Charles Garnett, project director, (at the Naval Surface Warfare Center at Dahlgren) called the projectile fired by the railgun "a supersonic bullet," and the weapon itself is "a very simple device."
He compared the process to charging up a battery on the flash of a digital camera, then pushing the button and "dumping that charge," producing a magnetic field that drives the metal-cased ordnance instead of gun powder.]
The prototype fired at Dahlgren is only an 8-megajoule electromagnetic device, but the one to be used on Navy ships will generate a massive 64 megajoules. Current Navy guns generate about 9 megajoules of muzzle energy.
Elizabeth D'Andrea of the Office of Naval Research said a 32-megajoule lab gun will be delivered to Dahlgren in June.
press release (1/17/07) | Free Lance Star
*press release | Gizmodo
~No mention of the guidance system. Must be top secret.
Or if it's so cheap to operate it doesn't matter how often you miss the target?