Japanese Railgun Destroys First Ever Target in Testing: A Game Changer For Next Generation Naval Warfare?

Japan’s Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency (ATLA) has successfully completed offshore firing trials with an electromagnetic railgun, with the new weapons system trailed in June and July on the Maritime Self-Defence Force’s test vessel Asuka, and successfully carrying out long-range firings. Tests have for the first time included shooting a target vessel at a range. Japan and China are considered to lead the world in railgun development, with images of a large experimental weapon fitted onboard the hull of a Chinese Type 072III Class landing ship having first emerged in 2018. Such weapons use electromagnetic force to launch high velocity projectiles via a sliding armature by accelerating it along a pair of conductive rails. Projectiles are fired at extreme velocities, with ALTA reporting that its prototype achieved muzzle velocities exceeding 2,500 meters per second, compared to 1,750 meters per second for tank guns.

Railguns are not expected to make use of explosive projectiles, and may instead rely solely the kinetic energy of their projectiles’ impacts to destroy their targets. The importance of such weapons is nevertheless expected to be much more limited than advances in missile technologies, since the majority of naval engagements between high end navies are expected to take place at extreme ranges of close to 1000 kilometres or more, while railguns are not expected to have an over the horizon targeting capability. China has to this end brought multiple classes of ship-launched hypersonic cruise and ballistic missiles into service, with Japan and the United States working to do the same for their own fleets.

The United States appears to have stalled in work to develop its own railgun system, and while plans were made in 2014 to test such a weapon at sea in 2017, these plans were later scrapped, reportedly due to difficulties during development. Japan’s long history of transferring its most advanced defence related technologies to the United States raises the significant possibility that successful testing by ATLA will pave the way to the U.S. Navy eventually being able to field such weapons.