Japan stepping up their game

Japan's Ministry of Defense is putting serious research and development resources into railguns, a hitherto science fiction weapon that fires projectiles very fast, very far, and at a high rate using electromagnetic power rather than gunpowder.

Some 6.5 billion yen (around $56 million) was allocated to the railgun project in the government's initial fiscal 2022 budget proposal. With China and North Korea developing difficult-to-intercept hypersonic weapons, will Japan succeed in making the weapon part of its air defenses?

"Our one hope is a prototype weapon called a railgun. It shoots a steel projectile at Mach 7." Shortly after these words are uttered, a railgun built onto a U.S. military guided-missile destroyer fires a hypersonic round that cleaves through a giant robot trying to destroy one of the Egyptian pyramids. So goes one of the scenes in the climax of sci-fi action film "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen."


Mainichi Japan)