The Ministry of Defense of Japan intends to start full-scale development of electromagnetic guns capable of shooting down hypersonic missiles from fiscal year 2023.
Their practical tests are expected to begin in about five years, the Sankei newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing the military department. The draft state budget for fiscal year 2023 plans to allocate 6.5 billion yen (more than $56 million) for these purposes.
Such weapons are based on the use of technology, also called "railgun", which allows you to accelerate the projectile due to an electromagnetic field. In the course of preliminary studies, a launch velocity of more than 2,000 m/s has already been achieved, which is allegedly higher than that of modern hypersonic missiles.
The US Navy was actively engaged in the development of railguns, which successfully shot down hypersonic targets during tests. However, now it has been decided to abandon these studies. Difficulties arose in creating particularly powerful, but compact sources of electricity, which are necessary to equip ships with such guns.
At the same time, according to the newspaper, Japanese private companies are ahead of the United States in developing such technologies. Tokyo hopes to use them in the practical creation of inexpensive electromagnetic weapons designed for the navy.
On the other hand, it is reported that the railgun is not very effective against hypersonic missiles and gliding blocks capable of changing the flight path. The Japanese military does not yet have even theoretical developments that can be used to reliably intercept such systems.
In this regard, in addition to creating new missile defense systems, Tokyo is increasingly inclined to equip its surface and submarine fleet with missiles with a range of about 1,000 km capable of striking bases on enemy territory. The Japanese government believes that this will be an effective deterrent, writes TASS with reference to Sankei.