杏吧原创

Photos suggest that China may be testing a ship-mounted electromagnetic railgun. If confirmed it would make China the first nation to develop such a superweapon, with potential implications for the power-struggle between China and the US in Asia.

A railgun uses electromagnetic force to fire projectiles along electrically charged rails at very high speeds. The US has been developing its own railgun technology over the last 10 years. In tests, prototype weapons 鈥� more than Mach 6 鈥� with a range of around 150 kilometres. But after sinking $500 million into the project, the US government pulled the plug last year.

China appears to be ploughing ahead, however. Making a railgun that would be reliable in combat is hard because of the huge pressures exerted on the structure of the gun. Mounting it on a ship adds extra challenges.

Safe distance

If China succeeds, it could change the balance of power at sea, says Justin Bronk at the Royal United Services Institute in the UK. 鈥淭here isn鈥檛 really a known defence mechanism against a railgun shot at high Mach numbers,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 too fast and too small for current anti-ship missile and anti-aircraft defence systems.鈥�

鈥淚f they can get it integrated as a major component into their future fleet arsenal, it will give them a really significant edge over the US navy,鈥� he says.

As well as being difficult to defend against, railguns have a long range. Bronk says that could make it easy for Chinese warships to hold other ships 鈥渁t threat鈥� from a safe distance in the South China Sea, East China Sea or the Pacific. The US would still have a superior submarine fleet, however.

But do the photos doing the rounds on social media really show the genuine article? According to Bronk, the wide and stubby profile of the weapon鈥檚 bore means it is unlikely to be a conventional naval gun, which would be much thinner. In theory, it could be an elaborate decoy. But there is little obvious incentive for making a fake 鈥� and it would still be expensive, says Bronk.