This country achieved success where US failed by building ‘high-power’ railgun, country is…, not Russia, China, UK, France, Germany, India, Pakistan

New Delhi: Ever since the twin tragedies struck Japan on 6 and 9 August, 1945 in the form of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the island nation never went for the development of weapons and military systems on a large scale. Instead, it focused on experimenting and developing new and better technologies for the benefit of humanity. It worked quietly on building new, improved infrastructure which the world swears by.

DSEI Japan 2025

With the rapid and strategic changes in the geopolitics and equation around the world, Japan is now out with ‘DSEI Japan’. DSEI Japan is the only large-scale, fully integrated defence event to take place in Japan, providing unprecedented levels of access into the Japanese and wider Asia-Pacific market.

It was held at Makuhari Messe, Chiba from 21-23 May 2025 and attracted 471 firms from 33 countries, including 169 from Japan alone.

Japan’s revolutionary railgun

It is here that Tokyo exhibited its trailblazing railgun. The railgun weapon was considered unfeasible and impossible to achieve even by the mighty United States.

But before delving into the USA-Japan story, let’s tell you that at DSEI, Japan exhibited high-powered lasers, missiles, drones, trainer jets, and many other new defense platforms. This surely makes one wonder if the country has radically changed its defence policies with North Korea and China as its neighbours?

Futuristic weapon

The main attraction at the expo that created a lot of curiosity and interest is the ‘futuristic railgun’ that its makers believe can even shoot down hypersonic missiles. The railgun was test-fired by the Japanese Navy for the first time last year and Tokyo released a few images in April. DSEI was perhaps the first public display of the gun.

In fact, railgun, though described as futuristic, was conceptualised during the 1920s, and many countries, including China, France, Germany, and India, have tried building one. The USA, arguably the most powerful military in the world, tried its luck at this weapon but abandoned its plans in 2021 after encountering multiple tech hurdles. But look here, Japan turned it upside down and Tokyo succeeded, where Washington failed.

The Chinese connection

We cannot leave behind China. While America halted its mission, China and Japan continued the work on railguns and in February last year, China claimed a breakthrough.

Feng Junhong-led team and the National Key Laboratory of Electromagnetic Energy at the Naval University of Engineering published a paper in the Journal of the Naval University of Engineering in November. The team claimed that its research resulted in the metal shell fired from a railgun receiving stable signals from the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) developed and operated by China. The BeiDou consistently adjusted its flight path, maintaining an error of less than 15 meters (49 feet) “until it hits its target.”

“Achieving such high accuracy at such high speeds is not easy, as the shell can travel 2,500 meters (8,200 feet) per second,” the report added.

Unique antenna created by Chinese engineers

Chinese engineers created a unique antenna that can resist intense electromagnetic radiation and receive clear signals from the BeiDou constellation’s military frequency band.

As for Japan, it started working on the railgun project in 2016. It has till date invested US$300 million and a prototype of the weapon is already undergoing trials aboard a Maritime Self-Defense Force test vessel.

Analysts privy to the project and those present at the exposition are unanimous in their conviction that Tokyo’s public unveiling of the railgun at the 2025 DSEI Japan shows that the country is confident in its technology and product reliability.

How railguns work

Even though the concept is about 100 years old and the world’s top military power failed to realise its dream, the basic science behind railguns is quite simple. Railguns are guns but unlike conventional guns they don’t use gunpowder. They use electricity and magnetism to launch projectiles at hypersonic speed.

Let’s go back to our school Physics classes

A railgun has two parallel metal rails connected to a power source which are placed close together, with a conductive projectile (often a metal ball) between them. When the railgun is activated, a massive electric current flows through one rail, across the projectile, and back through the other rail, creating a complete circuit. This huge current generates a powerful magnetic field around the rails. According to a principle called the Lorentz force, when electricity flows through a conductor (the projectile) in a magnetic field, it creates a force that pushes the projectile forward at hypersonic speed, often exceeding Mach 5 (6174 kmph).

A railgun uses an electromagnetic field to thrust the projectile forward to its target at incredibly high speed, Mach 5 (6174 kmph) which provides it with enough kinetic energy to destroy any potential target. They can reach a monstrous speed of Mach 8.8 (10866.2 kmph). Usually, the projectile could be any metal ball without any explosives. Due to the mind-blowing volume of kinetic energy used for the push, it has been compared to a meteor hitting the Earth.

Put simply, a railgun converts electromagnetic energy into kinetic energy and uses that kinetic energy to destroy a target which could be a fighter jet, missile, drone, or ship.

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