Japan has surprised the world by becoming the first country to carry out a successful test with a railgun at sea. On the experimental naval vessel JS Asuka, a striking 6,200-tonne test ship of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, a series of test shots was carried out this summer that startled the international defence world. Where countries such as the United States and the Netherlands abandoned their railgun programmes years ago, Japan has succeeded in testing an electromagnetic gun that not only works, but has also hit an actual target at sea. (see the video below)
The railgun was prominently mounted on the Asuka’s aft flight deck, surrounded by four large containers full of supporting equipment, including a colossal electricity generator. The set-up looked anything but operational, but that did not make the results any less impressive. ATLA, the Japanese Ministry of Defense’s acquisition agency that has been developing the project since 2010, led the whole operation. During the tests an old tugboat was used as a target — not at anchor, but sailing, to make the shot more realistic and challenging. Even so, the projectile hit the tug several times, with the cross-shaped impact points on the hull proving that the fin-stabilised projectiles had travelled dead straight and stable through the air.
What makes the railgun so special is the way it works. Instead of gunpowder, these guns use a powerful electromagnetic field to accelerate projectiles to extreme speeds — during the test ATLA reached more than 8,000 kilometres per hour, about Mach 6.5. The projectile itself does not even need to be explosive; the pure kinetic energy on impact is destructive enough. This makes the weapon not only safer on board ships, but also considerably cheaper per shot than traditional missiles. After all, a piece of metal hitting a target at hypersonic speed is lethally effective without a drop of explosive material being involved..
ATLA showed that the weapon is not only powerful, but also durable. Where earlier international projects got stuck on the enormous wear of the rails — a notorious problem that led to inaccuracy and dangerous malfunctions — the Japanese system managed to fire more than 120 shots without visible damage to the barrel. The projectile was also reduced to 40 millimetres, causing less wear while the speed still remained extremely high. That is a breakthrough the US Navy could only dream of in the early 2020s, just before it scrapped the entire railgun programme for good.
The test programme on the Asuka was thorough and varied. The railgun was not only aimed at targets, but also fired upwards at an angle of 45 degrees to collect ballistic data. Cameras, radar installations and even a drone recorded every detail of the shots. The weapons were also aimed remotely via a camera mounted under the barrel, allowing the operators to direct the projectile at the target with the utmost precision. All this gave ATLA a wealth of data, not only on the performance of the weapon itself, but also on the integration of such a system on a naval ship — an important step towards operational use.
That Japan has come this far is remarkable. Scientists have dreamed of electromagnetic guns for more than a century, but it was mainly the United States that pushed hardest on modern development. Its programme, once promising, foundered on the enormous technical and logistical challenges: gigantic energy requirements, extreme heat problems, and wear that increased faster than it could be solved. When the Americans pulled the plug in 2021, the future of the railgun seemed uncertain again. But Japan carried on undeterred, and for years quietly competed with China to be the first to complete a real maritime railgun test. Now it is clear who won that race.
Still, not everything is rosy. Railguns produce ozone when fired, a toxic gas that can be dangerous in high concentrations. Large capacitors are also needed that take up a lot of space, and the enormous magnetic field can interfere with sensitive electronics on board. But despite these challenges, Japan sees enormous potential. In the long term, the country wants to place the weapon not only on ships, but also on land to take out enemy artillery, strengthen coastal batteries and even provide protection against hypersonic threats.
The successful test on the Asuka thus marks not only a technological breakthrough, but also a strategic turn. The railgun opens the door to a new form of warfare in which extremely fast, cheap and hard-to-intercept projectiles can play a crucial role in both defence and attack. What once seemed a futuristic concept has now become tangible reality in Japan. And the rest of the world is watching closely.
