SOUTH DENNIS, Mass.

THE U.S. NAVY has successfully tested a high-tech powderless, electromagnetically driven rail gun that can hurl a projectile up to 300 miles inland to support Marine missions. In comparison, the range for conventional naval 5-inch guns is less than 20 miles.

The testing was performed at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, an isolated facility in Dahlgren, Va., which I’ve had the honor of having visited a couple of times myself. (I could tell you why, but then I’d have to kill you.)

The rail gun uses pulsed electric current sent through two parallel rails to electromagnetically propel the projectile along the rails, launching it at speeds up to Mach 7.0. The projectile does not even need a warhead because its high velocity gives it a tremendous force of impact without requiring an explosive. It is powderless when fired and explosive-free when it hits. It can easily knock out a building.

The powderless and explosive-free aspects of the system also contribute significantly to shipboard safety, eliminating the danger of shipboard explosions and fire.

The rail gun will let Navy ships strike deep into enemy territory while safely remaining far beyond the range of enemy fire. Marine missions will be supported by ships so far out that the enemy won’t even be able to see or detect them.

And the projectiles will cost next to nothing in military terms. Estimated cost, without any additional electronics—which could be incorporated later for enhanced guidance capabilities—is about $1,000 per shot. In contrast, a Tomahawk missile costs about a million bucks a shot. We can fire a thousand rail-gun projectiles for the cost of one Tomahawk missile.

After launching, the projectile will actually leave the Earth’s atmosphere, reaching a peak altitude of about 500,000 feet, or nearly 100 miles high. As for the downward trajectory, well, I can’t imagine anything in the world that could stop it. The projectile will literally be hurtling down at the enemy from space.

As for getting out of the way in time, no chance. The projectile will cover the entire distance from launch to impact in just six minutes, two minutes less than a $1 million Tomahawk missile over the same distance.

General Atomics of California has the lead in the project and has been working on the pulsed power electromagnetic propulsion system with several other companies, including Boeing. G.A. is no stranger to modern high-tech weaponry, as it produces the Predator family of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) used in Afghanistan, Iraq, and in other sensitive geopolitical areas.

The Navy claims the rail gun is already beyond the drawing-board stage and could be fielded immediately, but that further improvements and refinements are in the works.

G.A. program manager Tom Hurn says that they have “demonstrated the viability in a concept . . . to extend the state of the art in achieving the Navy’s performance goals.”

That’s a heck of a bland understatement. I’d sure hate to be on the receiving end of this essentially undetectable, powerful, long-range, high-tech piece of modern naval weaponry, the rail gun.

Solon Economou, an occasional contributor, is a Cape Cod-based newspaper columnist, science writer and professional engineer.