The Office of Naval Research (ONR) plans to conduct a series of test-firings of the BAE Systems [BA] electromagnetic railgun this year to help it assess the developmental system’s maturity, the organization’s leader said Feb. 14.
The tests at Naval Surface Warfare Center-Dahlgren Division in Virginia will begin in the spring and continue through the rest of the year, with a goal of firing 10 rounds a minute, said Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. David Hahn.
Besides trying out the firepower of the railgun, which the Navy ultimately wants to field on ships, ONR hopes to gain a better understanding of “lifecycle implications,” such as how long the gun’s barrel and other key components can function before they wear out and need to be replaced, Hahn said. The railgun uses electromagnetic energy to accelerate a sliding metal conductor between two rails, launching projectiles at 4,500 miles per hour, according to ONR.
“To be an effective weapon system, we have to mature each of the component parts to a point where we’re ready to absorb it into the overall system of a surface ship,” the admiral said at an American Society of Naval Engineers symposium in Arlington, Va. “It’s not effective if you are having to replace a barrel or redo the rails every 10 shots or whatever the number might be.”
Several other issues must be resolved to mature the railgun, Hahn added. They include determining how to power the railgun and stabilize it on a ship, and how to conduct targeting.
BAE and Raytheon [RTN] are both working to provide the railgun’s pulsed power. Batteries store energy and charge capacitors, which instantaneously release the energy required for repeated firings. “Developing high-capacity batteries and capacitors for repeated fires is one of the final design hurdles” for the railgun, an ONR spokesman said.
Although the railgun is designed to use electricity instead of traditional chemical propellants so it can fire projectiles long distances, testing at Dahlgren will not achieve the railgun’s range of 100 nautical miles due to space constraints. But Hahn said that will not prevent ONR from determining whether the weapon system works.