The EU plans to develop an electromagnetic gun that will accelerate an artillery shell to 7400 km/h
Last week, the European Defense Agency held the final meeting of the PILUM project. The goal of the program is to create an electromagnetic gun.
The European Defense Agency wants to develop a new artillery system based on an electromagnetic gun with the potential to accelerate projectiles to very high speeds. The project received financial support from the European Commission under the Preparatory Action for Defense Research (PADR).
The meeting focused on three key aspects of the PILUM project. We are talking about an electromagnetic gun, a hypersonic projectile, and the storage and conversion of electrical energy.
PILUM involves seven partners from four European countries. They were able to make progress in the main areas of electromagnetic artillery. The agency’s press release says that this will lay the foundation for a promising advanced electromagnetic weapon.
The concept of artillery shells with a speed of 6 Mach (7408.8 km/h) was also developed. The effectiveness of the concept was evaluated at Mach 5 (6174 km/h) in a wind tunnel and computer modeling.
Now the program can move on to the next stage, called THEMA (Technology for Electromagnetic Artillery). The goal is to test the electromagnetic gun at the test site no later than 2028.
