An electromagnetic railgun is exactly what it sounds like: it uses electricity and magnetic forces to propel bullets, instead of gunpowder or other chemicals.
Earlier this month, General Atomics Electromagnetic tested out railguns at US army testing grounds in Utah, shooting out projectiles that had accelerated with more than 30,000 times than the force of gravity.
The projectiles traveled at Mach 6, or around 4,600 miles per hour, Fox News reports. The average bullet travels at around 1,700 miles per hour.
The railgun was able to hit targets more than 100 miles away in around 6 minutes, and could see future deployment as a precision-striking instrument against targets in the land, water, or air.
“This latest testing series completes the risk reduction and technology maturation of the individual components of our electromagnetic railgun launched hypersonic projectiles,” said Nick Bucci, a vice president at General Atomics.
A French inventor had filed the first patent for an electric-based cannon in 1919, and the first blueprint for a workable railgun was formed in Nazi Germany in 1944, although it was never built.
In 2014, the Navy said that it planned to integrate railguns onto its ships by 2016. Earlier this year, the Navy said that railguns could be added to Zumwalt-class destroyers by the mid-2020s.
