Another World 1st By China : An Operational 200 km Range Rail Gun

 I posted about this a few years back when China first mounted a prototype railgun on a Navy vessel and ran tests on the gun. This video says they were calibrating the rail gun at that time.

The Chinese have since completed their development and will be putting their railgun in full operation on their Navy ships plus also on land. However the railgun needs huge amounts of electric power. 

A railgun is like an artillery cannon but it does not fire regular artillery shells. Instead it fires a solid projectile over considerable distances at hypersonic speed which is also highly accurate. The metal projectile is shot out using electromagnetism. Because of the hypersonic speed the kinetic energy of the projectile can destroy moving ships and fixed targets.

The longest range artillery cannon has a range of around 40 km. This has not changed since the Second World War.  This Chinese railgun can hit targets accurately at almost 200 km (124 miles). 

This is another game changer. The US has also been working on a railgun but they have not perfected it yet, despite billions of dollars spent and years having gone by. 

Here is the video:

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.