9 Things You Need to Know About Lasers and Electromagnetic Railguns

9 Things You Need to Know About Lasers and Electromagnetic Railguns

Two years ago, I predicted the development of 21st Century whiz-bang weaponry -- laser cannons and electromagnetic railguns -- would change the face of the U.S. Navy, making it better, more powerful, and cheaper to operate. Two years later, the Congressional Research Service agrees.

Across the defense industry, companies ranging up and down the alphabet -- from BAE Systems (NASDAQOTH: BAESY) to Kratos Defense (NASDAQ: KTOS), Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) to Raytheon (NYSE: RTN), and mostly of the other publicly traded companies in this space -- are hard at work making these new technologies a reality. In a report to Congress issued November 30, 2017, the U.S. Congressional Research Service (CRS -- an arm of the Library of Congress, sometimes referred to as "Congress' think tank") published a 46-report examining the state of development of three key weapons systems: Solid-state laser weapons, electromagnetic railguns (EM railguns, or simply "railguns"), and the Mach-speed hypervelocity projectiles used by the latter.

Wouldn't you like to know what Congress's own private think tank has to say about these weapons? Today you can. Here are nine fascinating facts from the CRS report:

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Source: Fool.com