Chinese navy says it’s testing the planet’s most powerful coil gun
- Giant electromagnetic launcher can accelerate a missile-size projectile to extremely high speed in the blink of an eye
- Futuristic weapons could ‘revolutionise’ warfare through faster, more accurate and devastating attacks
In a firing test revealed to the public for the first time, the electromagnetic launcher accelerated a 124kg (273lbs) projectile to a speed of 700km/h (435mph) in less than 0.05 seconds, according to scientists involved in the project.
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The projectile typically stays suspended in the centre of the coil during launch, which helps to keep it on a straight course and prevent it from touching the wall of the barrel. It can be fired repeatedly and rapidly without causing wear on components.
The technology has been around for decades, but challenges in materials science and electronics have made it difficult to build large and powerful models.
One of the closest competitors to the Chinese coil gun, a 120mm-calibre electromagnetic coil mortar test device at the Sandia National Laboratories in the United States, can fire a projectile weighing 18kg. It is among the largest of these devices ever built.
Other systems around the world typically can fire projectiles weighing only a few grams and with a diameter of a few millimetres, according to a study published by Israeli scientists in the journal Scientific Reports in January.
The larger a coil gun, the better its ability to fire projectiles similar to those fired by traditional artillery. A standard 155mm artillery shell used by the US military weighs around 43kg, while Italy’s Indigo anti-aircraft defence missile weighs 120kg.
The coil gun has a number of advantages over traditional artillery, including higher launch speeds, lower launch costs and shorter preparation time, according to the Chinese team led by professor Guan Xiaocun with the Naval University of Engineering.
“It has the potential for revolutionary breakthroughs in terms of speed, range, power, accuracy, safety, flexibility and reliability,” Guan and his colleagues wrote in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Transactions of China Electrotechnical Society this month.
“It is widely applicable in areas such as weapon systems, near-Earth satellites and high-speed missile launches.”
Their 30-stage coil gun is still in the testing phase, and it is unclear when or if it will be deployed in the field. However, the Chinese military has been investing heavily in the technology in recent years.
“The Naval University of Engineering has overcome a series of difficulties” in building a large coil gun, said Ma Weiming, lead scientist of the Chinese military’s electromagnetic launch programme in a paper published in June.
Ma said the challenges included the design and manufacturing of large-calibre high-magnetic-density coils and compact pulsed power technology.
He added that China was developing an even more powerful coil gun capable of launching a projectile at a speed of 3,600km/h, which could push the weapon’s kill range to over 100km.
Chinese researchers turn to AI to build futuristic weapons
The rapid development of coil guns in China was in part due to a breakthrough in sensor technology, according to Guan’s team.
Coil guns generate a strong magnetic field when fired, which can interfere with electronic devices and sensors, so research on electromagnetic launchers typically requires measuring the projectile’s flight behaviour through external means.
However, Guan’s team came up with a new smart projectile equipped with sensors that are shielded from electromagnetic interference thanks to special materials, allowing them to collect high-quality data about projectile flight behaviour. This precise data from internal sensors can help scientists improve the efficiency and stability of coil guns.
Maintaining a projectile’s suspension in the centre of the coil during launch can be a challenge, as any deviation from the centre can cause the projectile to touch the wall of the barrel and affect its trajectory.
The onboard sensors helped the Chinese scientists detect issues that were missed by computer modelling.
According to the team, at the start of the launch, the test projectile was at the bottom of the drive coil because of gravity. When the pulsed current was turned on, the test projectile was pushed upwards by the electromagnetic force.
Because the electromagnetic force was stronger at the tail of the projectile, it caused the projectile to tilt and collide with the inner wall of the drive coil, which made the acceleration data fluctuate, they said. When the test projectile passed through the later stages, it started to wobble because the pulse current was triggered at the wrong time.
Discoveries like this can help scientists improve the performance of coil guns. For instance, the wobbling can be reduced by adjusting the trigger time for the pulse current that passes through the coils.
