US Navy: Railgun + Hypersonics
The U.S. Navy has quietly restarted railgun testing at White Sands, reigniting interest in electromagnetic launchers capable of Mach‑7+ projectiles reported. At the same time, media coverage shows Zumwalt‑class destroyers are being paired with hypersonic missiles—raising coupled problems for plume, canister CFD, and thermal management covered.
The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division’s Year‑in‑Review documents a three‑day railgun test campaign at White Sands in February 2025 run by the White Sands Detachment with NSWCDD Dahlgren for NAVSEA’s Joint Hypersonics Transition Office. dvidshub.net Reports from Naval Sea Systems and defense outlets say engineers logged projectile acceleration, structural stresses and system performance during those firings to feed modeling and next‑generation weapon concepts for the Joint Hypersonics Transition Office. armyrecognition.com Shipfit and logistics work on the Zumwalt‑class replaced the forward AGS with four All‑Up‑Round canisters (each able to house three CPS missiles for a 12‑round forward loadout), and USS Zumwalt departed Pascagoula for post‑modification sea trials after the refit. marinelink.com The Navy’s May 2, 2025 end‑to‑end CPS test validated the cold‑gas ejection (cold‑launch) method planned for shipboard fielding, and recent technical literature and DOT&E filings show focused CFD work on bow/topside flow, canister ejection fidelity, plume impingement and thermal loads as priority problems to resolve via modeling, hardware‑in‑the‑loop and environmental testing. navy.mil
