Look Out, Pyongyang? Rail Gun in the Works

The folks over at DefenseTech cover the Navy's new destroyer and its electromagnetic railgun platform. The claim? Two DDG1000 destroyers should have the firepower of an entire, 640-person artillery battalion:

...[it relies] on electromagnetic fields to shoot projectiles [at] almost six kilometers/second... With an electromagnetic rail gun pushing the rounds out so quickly, the number of rounds fired per ship would jump from 232 to 5000, Navy planners believe... Because they travel so fast -- nearly Mach 7 -- the destructive force those rounds deliver would more than double, from 6.6 megajoules to 17. And they would fly almost five times farther -- up to 300 nautical miles. That's enough to put 100% of targets in North Korea "at Risk" from a single battleship, a Navy briefing notes...

Will 'Dear Leader' receive a long-distance love letter sometime soon?

DefenseTech: Look Out, Pyongyang? Rail Gun in the Works