ARLINGTON, Va. — General Atomics is holding discussions with the U.S. government regarding the role of railguns on the Trump-class guided-missile battleships.
“You know, we didn’t really give up on it,” Nick Bucci, Vice President, Defense Systems & Technologies at General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems told Naval News on the company’s railgun efforts at the 38th Surface Navy Association (SNA) national symposium.
Last month’s debut of the Trump-class revealed an expansive arsenal of cutting-edge weaponry and munitions, including what the U.S. Navy detailed as a 32 megajoule railgun at the warship’s fore. While work on American programs ceased in 2021, Bucci highlighted that General Atomics has been working “behind the scenes” to develop railguns.
“We’ve been working kind of behind the scenes with some of those other companies and countries to keep the technology moving forward to some level, some of it we kind of have put on the back shelf, but it’s ready to be pulled back out. We’ve used some of that technology in other areas of our portfolio, and so we can easily pull some of that back,” Bucci said.
While Bucci did not specify the companies and countries that were involved with General Atomics’ railgun work, American allies such as Japan, Germany and France have been working on their own systems in recent years. Tokyo’s efforts saw its first at-sea firing trial last summer.
Bucci also claimed that problems seen during the initial development of the railgun have been addressed.
“Depending on what their skepticism is, we probably have already solved that problem. And frankly, in many ways, with the advances that we’ve made in some of the inherent technologies, those challenges don’t exist any longer because we’ve tackled them for a different product. Whether it was from EMALS and AAG. Whether it was for our long-range maneuvering projectile with some of the electronics and things like that.”
Despite the Trump-class’ development and anticipated loadout indicating a renewed look at railguns by the Navy, Bucci stated that the company required further clarification on what the service wanted to do with the battleship’s railgun armament.
General Atomics previously told Naval Newsthat their railgun work could provide air and missile defense capabilities – including terminal defense – for Golden Dome as well as the defense of Guam. Bucci also noted that the company’s previous work was in support of U.S. Army air defense efforts.
“With the U.S. Army, we were talking about a smaller launcher that was doing primarily air defense missions,” Bucci said. “Whereas the Navy program was concentrating on the larger railgun for a different type of mission. And so our goal is to understand, really, what the requirements will be for Defiant and the Trump-class, so that we can get the right configuration to put forward for that new ship.”
For the U.S. Navy, the new class of battleship could provide enhanced loitering times, firepower and long-range hypersonic strike capabilities via its complement of missiles and guns. At SNA, U.S. Marine Corps Brigadier General Lee Meyers, Director of Expeditionary Warfare, remarked that the service was interested in how the battleship would “support future ship-to-shore movements given the evolution of the threat.”
