US holding fire on rail gun development but China takes aim with planned tests

Name: Chinese hypersonic weapons test ‘has all of our attention’, US General Mark Milley says
Uploaded: 2022-02-10T21:00:20.000Z
Duration: 2 min 6 s
Description: Chinese hypersonic weapons test ‘has all of our attention’, US General Mark Milley says

The Pentagon has halted its rail gun programme to focus on hypersonic weapons, but had also encountered difficulties with the tech

Chinese military will aim to overcome these in tests, after learning from other countries’ advances and adding some design changes of their own

3-MIN READ3-MIN

China hopes to uncover and address challenges in developing rail guns by intensifying its testing of them. Photo: Shutterstock

Stephen Chen

Published: 5:00am, 11 Feb 2022

China is to step up its testing of rail guns to an unprecedented level, according to a military researcher, as the US gives up on the futuristic weapon after decades of research.

A rail gun is a kinetic energy weapon that can fire a projectile at seven times the speed of sound with electromagnetic force and hit a target over 200km (125 miles) away – more than 10 times the typical range of a cannon.

The technology faces a major challenge: the fast-moving projectile and high-voltage electric current could cause irreparable wear on the rail or inner wall, reducing the gun’s lifespan and accuracy.

Wang Xiaohe, a researcher at the China Huayin Ordnance Test Centre in the northwestern province of Shaanxi, said Chinese scientists and engineers had in recent years come up with some possible solutions.

02:06

Chinese hypersonic weapons test ‘has all of our attention’, US General Mark Milley says

But the centre – the top Chinese military testing facility, which issues official certificates for deployment of new weapons – requires the rail guns to pass further tests to prove their potential worth in future warfare.