Is the Navy’s killer electromagnetic railgun losing its status as a top priority?

The U.S. Navy will continue to fund research and development efforts related to the service’s much-hyped electromagnetic railgun. Navy leaders, however, are likely not to pursue an electromagnetic railgun shipboard tactical demonstrator, which likely will likely condemn the more than $500 million project to a military research limbo as the Pentagon focuses on other directed-energy programs. An innovative naval prototypes line item from the Navy’s fiscal 2019 budget proposal last February explicitly sets aside $45.8 million to the railgun prototypes being tested at the Office of Naval Research and Naval Sea Systems Command. This line item is just one of several that shape funding for the Pentagon’s directed-energy weapons projects, like solid-state lasers and the hypervelocity projectile, both of which have emerged as higher priorities than the railgun. The explicit budget line indicates that the Navy hasn’t completely given up on idea of developing a supergun capable of liquefying enemy armor from miles away — even if the service did request $10 million less than in fiscal 2018.