Turkey's 1st railgun SAPAN: 10 times faster than sound

As part of an effort to decrease Ankara's dependency in the defense industry on foreign technology, Turkey developed its first electromagnetic railgun, SAPAN, that is ten times faster than the speed of sound.

Turkey's Scientific and Technological Research Council (TUBİTAK) has unveiled a new prototype of SAPAN at the High Tech Port 2016 Exhibition, held in Istanbul from Nov 9 to 12.

The SAPAN is an electromagnetic projectile launcher based on similar principles to the homopolar motor. A railgun uses a pair of parallel conductors, or rails, along which a sliding armature is accelerated by the electromagnetic effects of a current that flows down one rail, into the armature and then back along the other rail.

The new air defense system, that can be operated from naval ship to air is able to hit the target with a speed ten times faster than that of sound, is being made in Turkey, the third state in the world that can design and produce an EM railgun, after the U.S. and the UK.

The weapon uses electromagnetic currents rather than explosives or propellants made with gunpowder, enabling projectiles to be fired from the railgun at speeds much higher than those of conventional weaponry.

SAPAN is also able to carry out 10 firings within one minute. The new prototype was shown off after passing all trials successfully after being tested since 2014.