The Electromagnetic Rail Gun: Paving the

Future in Strike Warfare

Andrew Hartman
ENGL 202C
21 OCT 2014

Audience and Scope

The purpose of this technical description is to inform Naval ROTC Midshipmen about the
Electromagnetic Rail Gun, which could be implemented into the US Naval fleet in coming years.
These Midshipmen, who will be graduating and commissioning in four years or less, stand the
chance of operating a US Navy Rail Gun during their 5 years or more of active duty service. It is
important that they, as future officers of our military, are informed about future weapon
developments. This description of the Rail Gun will build off of the Naval Midshipmens knowledge
of electricity, magnetism, and basic weapon systems-all skills that have been mastered in their
prescribed Naval Science courses.

Introduction
In 1820, Hans Christian rsted discovered
that a wire carrying an electric current could
deflect a magnetic needle. The concepts of
electricity, which has been around since
ancient times, and magnetism which is an
inherent property in steel, iron, and
composites of the two, connected into one
common topic, called electromagnetism.
Electromagnetism is the science behind how a
Rail Gun operates. A Rail Gun is a weapon
system that uses two parallel metal bars,
usually made of a conductive metal such as
copper, a power source to introduce current
into the bars, and a magnetic armature which
houses a projectile. Current Rail Guns have
the potential to accelerate a projectile to
16,000 meters per second (35,800 miles per
hour) (see Figure 1) and cover over 250
kilometers (156 miles) in only six minutes.
Instead of destroying targets with a
conventional impulse launcher the Rail
Gun relies on pure force of impact to cause
damage.
Figure 1:
A Rail Gun launches a projectile at over six
times the speed of sound, ionizing the air
behind it into plasma.

Formatted: Number of columns: 2

Electromagnetism- Magnetism is
generated when an electric current is
introduced to a conductive metal.

Comment [JDH1]: This is an awkward place for

a definition. If you cant find a way to incorporate the
definition, perhaps put a glossary at the bottom of
each page or the end

Formatted: Number of columns: 2

Weapon System- A weapon and the

components necessary to its function.

Formatted: Font: Bold

Conventional Impulse Launcher- A

weapon system that provides initial
guidance/orientation to the projectile.
All propellant will be burned before the
projectile leaves the muzzle.

Comment [JDH2]: I would make the caption a

little bit smaller than your body text

Components of a Rail Gun

The Power Necessary for Destruction
The process of firing off a projectile from a
Rail Gun begins with the power source.
Positive tests of Rail Guns, which have
yielded projectile velocities of over Mach 6,
used power sources that produced millions of
Amps. Recall that Amps or Amperes are a
measure of electric current, which can be
stored in capacitors and released when a
switch is operated. Think about a disposable
film camera. When you wind the gear, you are
essentially flipping a switch which allows
the AA battery in the camera to route energy
into capacitors the size of an aspirin. When
you snap a photo, the capacitor discharges
and a bright flash is produced. Capacitors for
large scale Rail Guns must be many cubic
meters wide in order to store the necessary
amperage.

Mach 6- Six times the speed of sound.

Around 2040 m/s or 4600 mph.

Capacitor- A device used to store an

electric charge.

Conducting Power to the Rails of the Rail

Gun
Every Rail Gun contains two parallel rails
which will guide the armature and projectile
until they escape the barrel in which the rails
are contained. These bars must be composed
of an electrically conductive material because
in order to maximize efficiency in the gun, the
current generated by the power source must
provide the strongest possible magnetic field.
These rails can range from four to 30 feet
long. When the rails exceed 30 feet, the gun
risks structural damage due to malleability of
the rails. One rail is conducted under a
positive charge while the other is conducted
under a negative charge. The reason for this
will become clear when the operation of the
Rail Gun is discussed.

Figure 2: A depiction of how the rails,

armature, and projectile behave together in
the Rail Gun.
Malleability- The extent to which a
material can be bent without breaking.

Comment [JDH3]: The two column layout

confused me a little bit, especially with the layout of
the picture. It felt like everything in the top 2/3 of the
page belonged together, and the bottom 1/3 belonged
together.

Propelling the Armature down the

rails
An Armature is a solid piece of conductive
metal which cradles the gap between the
charged rails of the Rail Gun. Merriam
Webster Dictionary defines an armature as
The movable part of an electromagnetic
device. In the context of Rail Guns, this
definition fits perfectly. The armature of the
Rail Gun travels the length
of the rails and holds a projectile in the center
of it.

The Object of Destruction

The three previous components of the Rail
Gun function to deliver the Projectile to its
designated target. The weight of the projectile
not only determines the force of impact, but
more importantly, it determines the targeting
range of the gun. A heavier projectile may
cause more destruction than a lighter one, but
a lighter projectile can be launched further.

Comment [JDH4]: The close alignment of this

heading and the heading directly to the left added to
my confusion about the page layout
Comment [JDH5]: Change to just deliver.
Function to is unnecessary

How the Rail Gun Works

Comment [JDH7]: A lot of white space on this
page. Find a way to fill this

The components of the rail gun, all must

cooperate to accomplish the mission of the
weapon system: kill a target. This all begins
when the power source delivers a positive
charge to one of the rails. The positive current
travels down the rail (towards the barrel of the
gun), across the conductive armature, and
back up the negatively charged rail to the
power supply. This completes a circuit.
Each rail can be imagined as a wire, which, as
was discussed earlier, produces a magnetic
field when it is under an electric current. Since
each rail is under opposite charge, each rail
produces a magnetic field which rotates in
opposite directions. It is easy to see which
direction the magnetic field rotates on each
bar by using the Right Hand Rule as seen in
Figure 3.

Comment [JDH6]: Comma splice

Figure 3: (v) is equal to the direction the

current flows, and (B) is equal to the
direction of the magnetic field.

We see that the magnetic field rotates counter

clockwise on the positively charged rail and
clockwise on the negatively charged rail.
These two oppositely moving magnetic fields
produce a net magnetic field which points
upwards. The direction of the net magnetic
field as well as the fact that current travels
from positive to negative rails over the
armature, determines the direction in which
the armature will travel in relation to the
power supply. This direction is of course
towards the barrel and away from the muzzle.
This entire process is illustrated in Figure 4.
Figure 4: The first right hand rule can be
used to show that current (i) and field (B)
produce a force (F).

Disadvantages of the Rail Gun

Damage to the Rails
Some rail guns are only operational once
because of the damage sustained to the rails in
the gun.
Due to the high levels of electrical current
passing through the rails of a Rail Gun as well
as the high velocity in which the armature
passes along the rails, a rail gun can easily
overheat. In thermodynamics, you may have
learned that when metal is heated, it stretches
and bends. It can be expected that such
transformations to the metal rails which are
enclosed in a rigid barrel, would put a Rail
Gun out of commission very quickly.
Another source for damage in a Rail Gun is
magnetic repulsion. Since both rails of a Rail
Gun create incredibly strong oppositely
rotating magnetic fields, the rails are naturally

conditioned to repulse one another. Again,

the barrel is not meant to sustain such
repulsive forces since it is of a static
construction.

Weakness in Power Supply

In land based operations of Rail Guns, it is
relatively easy to obtain the necessary
amperage to conduct Rail Gun operation.
However, on a mobile platform such as a
Naval Warship, such levels of power are not
easily attainable. Most of the power on US
Navy ships is reserved for the operation of
the engine and other systems on board. Most
warships in our fleet do not even produce
enough power to operate a Rail Gun alone,
while others would be rendered immobile and
functionless otherwise, under the operation of
such a weapon system.

Comment [JDH8]: Again, lot of white space at

the bottom of the page. This can be filled with an
image possibly

Additional Applications
Star Wars
Star Wars is a United States government
operation devoted to shooting down
intercontinental ballistic missiles in space.
The objective of this operation, is to fire
projectiles from a celestially orbiting Rail Gun
platform so as to destroy enemy nuclear
missiles. Since rail guns do not require a
combustion process for firing, they can are
able to be operated in space where there is no
air present. A rendering of such operations is
shown in Figure 4.

Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles

(ICBM)- A missile with a long range
delivery (over 3,500 miles). Usually
used for the delivery of nuclear
warheads.
Combustion Process- Solid or liquid
propellant is used to fire a weapon.

Comment [JDH9]: I would add space between

the heading and paragraph and make the heading
more distinct

Comment [JDH10]: can is more concise here

Figure 4:
An artists rendering of a spaced based Rail
Gun platform shooting down ballistic
missiles which have just left the atmosphere.

Comment [JDH11]: Same as above

Littoral Combat Ships

The size of a Rail Gun poses a problem for its
installation of most naval warships. The
current weapon system that is used on most
agile warships is the 5 inch gun which has a
barrel length of just over 22 feet and can
launch a projectile up to 15 miles. As
previously mentioned, the rail gun has a barrel
length of up to 30 feet and can launch
projectiles up to 156 miles. The only way that
the US Navy can harness this potential is
through the use of its three new Zumwalt
Class Littoral Combat Ships (Figure 5) which
have the space and necessary power supply to
conduct Rail Gun operations.
Weapon System
5 Inch Gun
Rail Gun

Barrel Length
22 Feet
30 Feet

Figure 5: Litoral Combat Ships with

mounted Rail Guns.

Range
15 Miles
156 Miles

Current Fleet
Prevalence
81 Ships
0 Ships

Formatted Table

Conclusion
As future Naval Officers, you will be entering the fleet during a time of great technological change.
The impulse launchers of 20th century are phasing out as a new line of weapon systems such as lasers
and even cyber warfare become more prevalent. The Rail Gun is at the forefront of this movement.
Someday you may find yourself on board a ship with a rail gun as the primary weapon. It is
important to understand the components of the rail gun, how it operates, and the ability it has to
accomplish the strike missions of the United States Navy. The days of man to man naval combat
are long gone. The days of medium strike combat are fading. We are now entering into the future of
over the horizon warfare on the water with the Rail Gun, almost 200 years after its principle
operating function was conceived.

Comment [JDH12]: I like the conclusion. It does

a very good job at emphasizing the importance of the
rail gun
Comment [JDH13]: I would try to find a
constant layout for the whole document. You start in
single column, then switch to double, and go back to
single.

Works Cited
http://science.howstuffworks.com/rail-gun3.htm
http://www.howmagnetswork.com/Electromagnetism.html
http://physicsed.buffalostate.edu/SeatExpts/resource/rhr/rhr.htm
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/armature
http://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.asp?cid=2100&tid=575&ct=2
http://breakingdefense.com/2014/01/navy-seeks-rail-guns-lasers-cruise-missiles-to-improvepacific-firepower/

Images:
http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2012/ph240/thavapatikom2/images/f2big.jpg (Resized)
http://s.hswstatic.com/gif/railgun-7.gif (Resized)
http://physicsed.buffalostate.edu/SeatExpts/resource/rhr/CNB.JPG (Screen Altered)
http://s.hswstatic.com/gif/railgun-6.jpg
http://breakingdefense.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2013/10/USS-Zumwalt-rendering.jpg
http://s.hswstatic.com/gif/railgun-8.gif