Defence Japan successfully tests advanced railgun

"Advanced anti-ship missiles fly at high speeds near the sea surface making them difficult to intercept with conventional, fuse-based air defense missiles," said Masashi Murano, a Japan defense expert at the Hudson Institute think tank. To address this challenge, several countries are working on new technologies such as railguns and directed-energy weapons to complement existing interceptor missiles and provide multilayered air defense options, he added. At the same time, the kinetic projectiles fired from railguns are much more cost-effective compared to conventional air defense missiles, which can cost billions of yen per shot, the expert noted. Naval News reports that research will not be limited to armor-piercing rounds, but will also extend to technologies for airburst munitions — rounds that detonate midair to disperse lethal fragments — optimized for anti-air warfare scenarios. What is quite unique, however, is the idea of using the railgun as an anti-ship weapon.

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