General Atomics has been upping the ante on its 'Blitzer' railgun, named after the most dangerous of Santa's reindeer. GA's got a new, super aerodynamic dart for it that can travel four miles downrange after being fired at zero elevation and blowing through a 1/8" steel plate.
In previous tests, the railgun had been using rounds shaped kinda like bricks. And ultimately, the rounds behaved like bricks too, tumbling out of control at Mach 6. The new round from Boeing is streamlined and mean looking, and if it can make it seven kilometers when fired at zero elevation, it's easy to imagine a 150 mile range in operation:
It's pretty cool to see the railgun assembly just sitting out there looking like, you know, a giant gun, as opposed to just a jumble of equipment in a building somewhere. General Atomics is hoping to have this thing installed and operational in a destroyer by the end of the decade. LINK
Via Defense Tech
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