Navy Considers Electric Gun for a Zumwalt-Class Destroyer

This Thursday Feb. 23. 2012 photo provided by the US Navy shows A high-speed camera captures the first full-energy shots electromagnetic railgun prototype launcher that was recently installed at a test facility in Dahlgren, Va. The test shots begin a month-long series of full-energy tests to evaluate the first of two industry-built launchers that will help bring the Navy a step closer to producing a next-generation, long-range weapon for surface ships. The new launcher brings advanced material and high-power technologies in a system that now resembles a large-caliber gun. AP Photo/U.S. Navy, John F. Williams

BATH, Maine—Development of a futuristic weapon depicted in video games and science fiction is going well enough that a Navy admiral wants to skip an at-sea prototype in favor of installing an operational unit aboard a destroyer planned to go into service in 2018.

The Navy has been testing an electromagnetic railgun and could have an operational unit ready to go on one of the new Zumwalt-class destroyers under construction at Bath Iron Works.

Adm. Pete Fanta, the Navy’s director of surface warfare, has floated the idea of foregoing the current plan to put a prototype on another vessel this year and instead put it directly on future USS Lyndon B. Johnson, though no final decision has been made.

“The Zumwalt-class is one of a number of options being explored for the electromagnetic railgun,” said Lt. Cmdr. Hayley Sims, a Navy spokeswoman. “Due to the size, weight and power requirements, some platforms will be better suited for the technology than others.”

The future USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) is underway for the first time conducting at-sea tests and trials on the Kennebeck River December 7, 2016 in the Atlantic Ocean.The Zumwalt is the largest destroyer ever built for the U.S. Navy. Photo by U.S. Navy/General Dynamics Bath Iron Works via Getty Images