Oh, the humanity!

Apparently, the Senate has voted to terminate Navy railgun and laser weapons programs.  While I cannot comment on the laser's feasability, I can about the railgun's.  More or less, as an IEEE member of the Magnetics Society, each year I would be treated to the summaries of the annual symposium about electromagnetic propulsion, known commonly as railguns for the "rails" by which the opposing magnetic field in the projectile (known as a "sabot") would be generated.

More or less, it's a neat technology capable of accelerating the sabot far more quickly than any conventional artillery shell.  Each year, I'd be treated to literally hundreds of articles about the ultracapacitors, batteries, chemical electrical generation systems, rail technologies, and such needed for this weapon of the future.  It was a ticket to a free conference for thousands of railgun researchers at universities and government labs around the world.  I bet the parties were something to write home about.

That said, the railgun was, and will always be, the "weapon of the future."  Why so?  The trick is that storing electromagnetic energy, whether through capacitors or batteries, uses far more space than chemical energy in gunpowder.  Also, the rails wear out after a few uses, while howitzer and rifle barrels can literally fire tens of thousands of rounds before being replaced.  

The end result is that you could get the firepower of a standard Army howitzer with a footprint no smaller than that of an Iowa class battleship, and one that would need extensive rework every dozen shots or so.  As I like to say, "what could possibly go wrong?", and thanks is due to the Senate for finally killing this decades-old boondoggle.