COMMENTARY | In a budget that boosts spending in other accounts, the military is due to shrink to such an extent that servicemen and women might be ousted involuntarily from the military, according to Bloomberg. But there is one bright spot in Pentagon funding bill.
The Navy's electromagnetic railgun has survived the budget cutters, according to Wired. The weapons system development program had been slated for cancellation by the Senate Armed Services Committee last summer. The decision has powerful implications for the future of naval war.
The U.S. military has traditionally used its superior technological acumen as a force multiplier. Better technology wins wars and preserves the lives of American servicemen and women.
The railgun uses electricity that charges magnets to boost a projectile from, say, a Naval vessel at supersonic speeds at targets hundreds of miles away. If and when such a weapon can be deployed, it will be the greatest game changer since the introduction of artillery on ships hundreds of years ago.
Cruisers and destroyers equipped with railguns can bombard onshore targets outside the range of any land based defenses such as shore to ship missiles such as Iran has deployed near the Strait of Hormuz. A ship with a railgun could attack enemy vessels not equipped with such weapons with impunity, outclassing an ordinary ship as a modern warship would a World War II era ship. A fleet of such ships would outclass all the other navies in the world. The implications for the long term preservation of American military superiority are profound.
While a shipboard version is slated to be tested in 2019, a number of technical challenges remain. A railgun takes an enormous amount of energy to operate, which may require augmenting ships where they would be deployed. So far railguns have fired inert lumps of metal. The Navy would like them to be able to fire smart munitions that would be able to course correct in route to a target. The barrels of railguns may wear out quicker than conventional guns. The Navy would like railguns to have a high rate of fire, perhaps six to 10 rounds a minute.
It is a tribute to the Navy and its friends in Congress that systems like the electromagnetic railgun has survived President Barack Obama's budget ax. That will mitigate the long term consequences, to be paid for with money and blood, of the drive by the administration to slash the military.
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