Aero India 2025: DRDO progresses development of new ‘compact' electromagnetic railgun
DRDO displayed a model of its electromagnetic railgun at Aero India 2025. (Janes/Ajay Shankar Pandey)
India's state-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) showcased a model of its new compact and transportable electromagnetic railgun (EMRG) at the Aero India 2025 show held in Bangalore.
DRDO said the EMRG, which is being developed by the DRDO's Armament Research & Development Establishment (ARDE) laboratory, is a trailer transportable version and is ready for field trials. DRDO officials said the trials represent a major step towards enabling the EMRG to become fully functional.
The compact EMRG set-up comprises a modular capacitor bank, a lithium chemistry cell-based battery bank, a railgun, and a diesel generator as a power source.
The DRDO officials said the system's size has been partly enabled by its capacitor bank, which was developed through an ARDE science and technology project, and its 15 kW portable diesel generator that can fully charge the battery bank in 30 minutes. The generator replaces the grid power used in larger EMRG systems.
The energy contained in the battery bank is used to charge the capacitor bank to 10 MJ, which in turn is delivered to the railgun.
The railgun uses this energy to propel a projectile with a monolithic armature to muzzle speeds exceeding 2,000 m/s. The system features 25 modular capacitor power banks, with each possessing a storage capacity of 400 KJ.
Fully charged, the EMRG can fire 30 rounds at the rate of 3 rds/min. The life of the rails in the EMRG compact version has been enhanced to more than 50 shots after which they would require maintenance.
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