The Railgun: The Ultimate Weapon the U.S. Military Can’t Build?
Story by Peter Suciu • 3h ago
Railguns have been discussed for decades now in various military and defense circles. But why don't they ever get built and deployed? While the concept of “directed-energy weapons” originated on the pages of pulp novels
The concept of the railgun, a technology that could utilize a large circuit to launch a projectile far further than one launched via the use of a chemical reaction, was developed by Andre Louis Octave Fauchon-Villeplee. He created a simple electric cannon, which caught the attention of the French military—who were seeking a weapon that could rival such long-range cannons as Germany’s so-called “Paris Gun.”
Under the direction of the Director of Inventions at the French Ministry of Armaments in 1918, Fauchon-Villeplee was charged with developing a thirty to fifty millimeter electricannon based on his simple design. While it might seem revolutionary today for the French military to be so forward-thinking, it should be remembered that at the start of the war its uniforms and tactics were little changed from that of a generation earlier.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/the-railgun-the-ultimate-weapon-the-u-s-military-can-t-build/ar-AA16oMdd?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=ff6c265b0e464698b7041d42f5b239a1
