Russia successfully tested electromagnetic gun for new fighter

Russia has just successfully tested the railgun - a high-tech weapon that Moscow prioritizes equipping for 6th generation fighters.

According to the senior representative of the Radio-Electric Design Complex – KRET, a member company of Rostec Corporation, Vladimir Mikheyev, to ensure the progress of the development of a number of specialized technologies for the 6th generation aircraft, including the electromagnetic cannon, which has begun to be successfully tested.

The representative said that with the new electromagnetic rail gun, Russia's 6th generation aircraft can attack targets beyond visual range (over 10km) with high-energy guns. He added that this is a powerful weapon, but will only be equipped on the unmanned version to avoid negative effects of magnetism on the pilot.

Mr. V. Mikheyev further explained: "To create a large magnetic thrust, the magnetic pulse of the railgun weapon will be very strong. This can have a negative impact on the pilot's physical condition and health."

Russia tests electromagnetic cannon.

Although talking about the tests of the electromagnetic gun, Mr. V. Mikheyev did not reveal anything more about this high-tech attack weapon. However, according to information published by the Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta (RG) on May 31, the secrets about this gun were revealed.

According to this source, although the US electromagnetic gun has a speed of 7,000 km/h, this speed is only 1/3 of the electromagnetic gun Russia is developing.

"What the US says about its electromagnetic cannon does not surprise us because Russia has been working on developing similar weapons for a long time," said Franz Klintsevich, senator and first deputy chairman of the Russian Federation Council's defense and security committee.

In addition, Rossiyskaya Gazeta also unexpectedly revealed that the Russian electromagnetic gun currently being researched by the High Temperature Research Institute (under the Academy of Sciences) in Shatura has had successful tests and achieved a speed 3 times faster than the American electromagnetic gun.

"In laboratory tests, we tested an electromagnetic gun that fired a bullet weighing just a few dozen grams at a speed of up to 6.25 km/s (22,500 km/h), which is very close to the first cosmic speed," said Alexey Shurupov, director of the Institute of High Temperature Research at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Shatura.

With the terrifying speed of the bullet made by the above laboratory in Russia, no protective layer of current military equipment can withstand it, from warships, tanks, planes. And it is said to fly 3 times faster than the speed of the American electromagnetic cannon in the test (7,000km/h).

According to leading defense experts, success with electromagnetic weapons could change the nature of future naval warfare. Compared to missiles, electromagnetic weapons have many advantages in terms of low cost of use, easy maintenance and high combat performance. In fact, no matter how large a warship is, it can only carry a certain number of missiles.

When used up to reload, the warship is forced to return to port or a specialized system to reload. Electric weapons do not need this because the ammunition structure is small, can be easily transported like conventional artillery shells, and can even be supplied at sea. In combat, missiles can be affected by interference factors that can miss the target if the guidance system is disabled. This is not the case with electromagnetic weapons.

The ability to fly purely inertial, supersonic speed, the attack warhead has a small cross-section reflector, so it is almost impossible to prevent or interfere with them. With a high muzzle velocity, the destructive ability of the railgun shell fired is no different from that of heavy explosive warheads.

In terms of cost, each attack missile costs from hundreds to millions of USD per unit, while each unit of electromagnetic rail gun costs only a few tens of thousands of USD. Meanwhile, the range of the rail gun has reached almost the same level as that of popular missiles today.

According to Baodatviet