railgun reality

US Navy's test fire of a railgun on Jan 31st, 2008

A railgun is a form of gun that converts electrical energy (rather than the more conventional chemical energy from an explosive propellant) into projectile kinetic energy. It is not to be confused with a coilgun (Gauss gun). Rail guns use magnetic force to drive a projectile. Unlike gas pressure guns, rail guns are not limited by the speed of sound in a compressed gas, so they are capable of accelerating projectiles to extremely high speeds. wiki

In layman's terms, it's a big-ass gun that:

• doesn't rely on explosives to eject the "bullet"
• uses a magnetic field that pushes the bullet out perpendicularly
• hits target up to 230 miles (370 km), or 10x the distance the biggest gun currently can (livescience)
• reaches Mach 7 and ignites plasma in the air along its projectile
• strikes and destroys targets with sheer speed, without any need for explosion

courtesy: howstuffworks

A youtube comment hits bullseye on how it should be used - to propel a small rocket into space. A bigger gun is not what we need right now since weapon supremacy alone doesn't win wars anymore. I understand that guns will continually become bigger and researches for advance military means will always get the first nod of OK. But I hope they'll also consider an alternative use. Imagine a relatively cheap way to get a sizable payload all the way up there into and beyond earth's orbit.
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