By Brock Vergakis
A super-powerful gun that shoots rounds more than 160 kilometres away — at several times the speed of sound — is being developed for Navy warships.
The weapon is known as an electromagnetic rail gun. It consists of parallel rails and uses a magnetic field and electric current, instead of chemicals, to generate energy to fire the rounds.
The navy said Tuesday an industry-built prototype of the gun is being tested at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division in Northern Virginia. It uploaded a video to YouTube demonstrating a test-shot as part of a month-long series of tests to evaluate the technology.