Review on the Technology Characteristics and the Military Application of Railgun

The technology characteristics of the railgun were analyzed and concluded, and the corresponding military application was deduced and reviewed. The pulsed power supplies (PPSs) such as the capacitor bank with pulsed forming network (PFN), the CPA as rotary MFCG, the HPG, and the piston-type MFCG were briefly introduced, and the last one is most suitable for the railgun. The metal armature has higher efficiency than the plasma one. Cooperated with the stripped rails, the metal armature can push the light projectile to a velocity of 4.6 km/s without erosion. The simple two-rail railgun has such intrinsic characteristics as low inductance and low breech voltage, only suitable to accelerate the light bullets with high efficiency, while the multi-turn railgun can launch the little heavier bullets as a result of high inductance gradient. The enhanced magnetic field made by the assistant rails or magnets can help to accelerate the armature further, the balance criterion of the energy distribution between the external magnetic field and the railgun current is necessary to optimize the railgun parameters. In a word, the railgun can accelerate a light projectile to a high speed with a high efficiency. On the ground, the dense air prevents the light projectile flying far. In the sky of the satellite orbit, the bulky, heavy and energy-consuming PPS refuses the railgun to be a convenient weapon. But upon the big aeroplane with an altitude of more than 16 km, the railgun with compact MFCG has such advantages as quick response, long combat range, high intercepting precision, and anti-EM-jamming. The weapon system may be a kind of valid weapons to destroy the enemy's missiles, planes, or satellites.