Several months ago, the U.S. Navy launched the Zumwalt vessel, which is touted as America's most advanced warship. Aside from its stealth capability, this class of ships can produce enough power for its arsenal of weapons. One of these is revealed to be a railgun that can fire projectiles that is seven times faster than sound and it could even beat the speed of thought.
The U.S. Navy is planning to deploy the railgun technology in the latest Zumwalt destroyer, the USS Lyndon B. Johnson. This ship generates 78 megawatts of energy, enough to power the railgun's electromagnetic technology, according to Engadget. The railgun is set to replace missile technology in battleships due to its cost efficiency. It has power that can rival missiles, but is cheaper to use since it does not need big explosive charges. It uses electricity to fire projectiles that create massive kinetic energy to decimate land-based targets. In the USS Lyndon B. Johnson, the railgun is poised to replace the 155mm gun.
"The Navy is determined to increase the offensive punch of the surface warships," Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute, said in an ABC News report. "To do that with a limited budget, it needs to look at everything from smart munitions to railguns to lasers."
Early this year, the Navy was still deciding which ship best suits the railgun requirements for the 2016 at-sea demo, Defense News reported. While no final decision has been made, it appears that the latest Zumwalt class will most likely host an operational prototype.
