Future Fires

摘要

The electromagnetic railgun is, by some measures, more than a half-century old. Finally, however, the Navy says it is close to fielding a weapon aboard ships that can both take out enemies attacking troops on the ground from 100 nautical miles away and tear through the hull of a hostile ship with a projectile moving at incredible speeds.As far as gee-whiz technology goes, the electromagnetic railgun is a weapon that gets people both inside and outside the Navy talking about what the future of surface fires will look like on the high seas. But with budgets across the Department of Defense expected to shrink in the coming years, and greater pressure than ever on Congress and the Pentagon to trim any costs possible, an experimental program like the electromagnetic railgun may seem like a potential target for the ax.