China installs a rail cannon on the "Haiyangshan 936" warship

According to the Nova agency, the Chinese Defense has installed the prototype of a naval rail cannon on a landing vessel of its Navy, the Haiyangshan 936. This is confirmed by some images published in the last months by the Chinese state media.

The news was corroborated yesterday by a well-known Chinese military commentator, Chen Shuoren, who responding to the questions of a journalist sent by "Science and Technology Daily" "said:" Even though the US has been openly working for years on the development of electromagnetic weapons This does not mean that China is lagging behind on this front, as Beijing usually keeps secrecy about its progress due to secrecy concerns. "

According to Chen, the US has for years been at the forefront of the development of this new type of naval armaments, but, due to the lower funds allocated to research in that specific field, they have now given way to China. Beijing has thus become the first military power to install a rail cannon on a ship for experimental purposes.

According to Chen, the choice of the Haiyangshan 936 transport vessel for conducting the tests is due to the need to accommodate the impulse power generator that powers the new weapon system. The US carried out the first demonstration of a rail cannon in the 2006 and in the 2016 announced the start of tests on board the USS Millinocket, a new generation fast transport vessel.

Since then, however, the program has been postponed indefinitely due to the very high costs and major technical challenges presented by the program.

China installs a rail cannon on the "Haiyangshan 936" warship