US Navy's Railgun Will Be Shown In Public In February 2015

The US Navy Has A Terrifying New Weapon

"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" was a terrible film, it did however have one redeeming feature: its futuristic portrayal of a new US Navy weapon.

While the railgun was nothing more than science fiction in "Transformers", the US Navy and BAE Systems have gone ahead and built one, and next month they'll showing it off to the public.

The railgun is a particularly terrifying brand of weapon because it forgoes the fire and smoke of current weapons in favour of cold, hard technology.

A single metal slug is propelled to mach 6 by a series of powerful electromagnets, there's no chemicals, no gunpowder.

The slug has no explosive tip either -- it doesn't need it -- instead its destructive power will come from the sheer speed and force with which it hits the target.

When finished the weapon will be able to fire a projectile with pinpoint accuracy over a staggering 110-nautical miles, far further than any current artillery weapon.

The US Navy has confirmed that it's on track to begin sea trials of the weapon beginning 2016.

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