A railgun uses electromagnetic energy to accelerate a projectile very, very quickly. However, the US has recently turned away from the tech.
A railgun works by generating a strong electromagnetic current that flows from one rail, through a U-shaped back end of the projectile, and into another parallel rail. This generates three magnetic fields—a parallel one around each of the rails, and a perpendicular one around the projectile. Squeezed forward by the magnetic fields, the projectile accelerates rapidly along the rails and is then launched forward, breaking the circuit.
This makes a railgun distinct from explosively propelled artillery, in which the force of rapidly expanding gasses propel a shell out the barrel of a cannon. Explosive propulsion, from the massive ship-mounted cannons of World War II battleships to modern artillery, is a tried and true way to hit an object, building, and sometimes even vehicle at great distance.
Railguns shift the work of acceleration from the launched projectile to the machine doing the launching. This allows the actual ammunition fired to be simple, deadly, and fast. When the US Navy started its railgun project, it stated the goal was for the weapon to fire at Mach 7, or seven times the speed of sound, and to reach distances as far as 100 miles away.
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