A railgun is a device that uses electromagnetic force to launch high-velocity projectiles, by means of a sliding armature that is accelerated along a pair of conducting rails. It is usually constructed as a weapon and the projectile normally does not contain explosives, depending on the high velocity of the projectile to inflict damage. The rail uses a pair of parallel conductors, or rails, along which a slip armature is accelerated by the electromagnetic effects of a current flowing through a rail, inside the armature and then back along the other lane. It is based on principles similar to those of the homopolar motor.
Railguns are being investigated as weapons that would not use explosives or propellants, but would be based on electromagnetic forces to impart very high kinetic energy to a projectile (eg, APFSDS). While military cannons with explosives can not easily reach a muzzle speed of more than 2 km / s, railguns can easily exceed 3 km / s, and may exceed conventional delivered munitions and destructive force. The absence of explosive propellers or nuclear warheads for storage and handling, as well as the low cost of projectiles compared to conventional armaments come as additional advantages.
Despite the aforementioned advantages, the railway weapons are still under investigation and it remains to be seen whether or not the railway weapons will be used as practical military weapons. Any compensation analysis between electromagnetic propulsion (EM) systems and chemical propellants for weapon applications should also take into account the novelty and complexity of the pulsed power supplies needed in electromagnetic release systems.
In addition to military applications, NASA has proposed using a landing gear to launch "high-altitude wedge-shaped aircraft with scramjets" at Mach 10, where they will then fire a small payload into orbit using conventional rocket propulsion. , The extreme G-forces involved with the direct launch of the railgun main space may necessarily limit the use to only the harder payloads or the very long rail systems to further reduce the launch acceleration.