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Japan Looks to Partner with U.S. on Railgun Project

CHIBA, Japan — It’s a “futuristic” technology that has been in development off and on for more than 100 years.

Electromagnetic railguns were first conceived in France during World War I. Since then, everyone from the Nazis in Germany, to China, Russia, India and the U.S. Army, have attempted to field the potentially game-changing weapon of war.

The U.S Navy, after spending some 15 years and $500 million developing a railgun for destroyers, gave up on the idea in 2021.

But the railgun concept is not dead. Japan’s Ministry of Defense is looking to partner with the United States on a railgun program that could be used to counter hypersonic weapons, a senior Japanese official told National Defense recently.

A railgun uses electricity flowing between two parallel conductors to shoot a non-explosive projectile at high speeds over long distances. The velocity results in such a powerful impact, explosives are not needed to cause considerable damage.

Despite the concept being around more than a century, no militaries have successfully fielded a railgun.

Shigenori Mishima, vice commissioner and chief technology officer at the Japanese Ministry of Defense’s Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency, listed a railgun as one of the military’s top research and development priorities at the DSEI Japan conference recently.

When pressed for details, he said the agency has been doing basic research on the technology for the past 10 years, but it could use help bringing the technology over the finish line.

There is a possibility that U.S. defense contractors could join the program, he said in an interview. “We could use help with the guidance system and power storage,” he said. “Those are your strengths. We have strengths, for example, constructing the rails — in material sciences,” he said.

The primary Japanese contractor on the program is Japan Steel Works, and Mishima said he has encouraged its executives to reach out to counterparts in the United States such as BAE Systems and General Atomics to see if they could join the program.

BAE Systems was the primary contractor on the U.S. Navy’s attempt to field a railgun. The Army contracted with General Atomics to research land-based options, such as integrating a gun on a tank or for long-range artillery. But the Navy soured on the technology and cut off funding in 2021, and the Army contract expired at about the same time.

“The decision to pause the EMRG program is consistent with department-wide reform initiatives to free up resources in support of other Navy priorities [which] include improving offensive and defensive capabilities such as directed energy, hypersonic missiles and electronic warfare systems,” the Navy told Military.com upon the program’s cancelation in July 2021.

However, hypersonic defense is what Japan sees as the gun’s primary application, Mishima said. It could also be land-based for island defense and shore-to-ship applications, he added. Hypersonic missiles and aircraft are defined as highly maneuverable and can reach Mach 5 or higher, which is a speed that railguns could be expected to achieve.

“If we can demonstrate the railgun, the United States might change its mind on the technology,” he said. It would be a win-win for everybody, he said.....