Russia tests railgun by firing 7200 mph projectiles but the test projectile is 1000 times smaller than US railgun

A team of Russian scientists has successfully tested the country’s first railgun, which relies on electromagnetic forces rather than explosives or propellant. According to experts at the Institute of High Temperatures’ branch in Shatura, just outside Moscow, the railgun can fire shells at an incredibly fast speed of 3 kilometers per second, which is well enough to cut through any type of armor existing today.

During the latest test, a 15 gram plastic cylinder fired by the railgun went through an aluminum plate several centimeters thick.

The US is near to conducting Sea trials of a railgun in 2017 or 2018. The US electromagnetic railgun will hurling a guided 44 pound (20 kg or 20000 gram) projectile at hypersonic speeds

Both BAE and General Atomics have developed and tested railguns for the US Army and Navy

At a US Naval Facility, a railgun fired a 25-pound projectile through seven steel plates and leave a 5-inch hole. The railgun projectile gains more speed as it travels the length of a 32-foot barrel, exiting the muzzle at 4,500 miles an hour, or more than a mile a second.

March 2016, General Atomics fired five test projectiles were fired at accelerations greater than 30,000 times that of gravity (over 30,000 gees) from GA-EMS’ 3 mega joule BlitzerĀ® electromagnetic railgun system.

Video of 2012 lab test railgun firing