This Railgun Can Shoot Like A Rifle Will Go On Sale in the US

A railgun seems like something that only top-secret government weapons programs can have, right? But not this railgun, apparently.

That's because this railgun, the GR-1 Anvil, is something you can hold and fire just like a rifle. According to the Daily Mail, the weapon is slated to go on sale in the US for a whopping $3,375 retail price. ArcFlash Labs, an LA-based company, is already accepting pre-orders for the gun.

Though marketed as the first and "most powerful" handheld railgun ever, the GR-1 Anvil is not as lethal as you might think. However, its technical specs are still pretty impressive. It can fire 20 rounds per minute at full power and 100 rounds per minute at half power. According to its makers, the GR-1 Anvil has about the same stopping power as an air rifle.

At top speed, the projectiles it fires out travel at over 200 feet per second. This means that the GR-1 Anvil has around half the power of a .22 caliber rifle. It's significantly less lethal, but it doesn't mean you can go around shooting people for fun with it. A railgun is still pretty powerful.

The railgun weighs around 20 lbs. and comes with a battery pack and a hard case. Its ammo and charger, however, are sold separately.

Read also: Homemade 3D-Printed, Handheld Railgun With Arduino Uno R3 Inside Fires Projectiles At 559 MPH

Railgun Technology: Real-Life Science Fiction Weaponry

Sure, a railgun doesn't sound as awesome as a laser gun or a stormtrooper blaster from Star Wars. But if you understand its inner workings, it's easier to see why it's the closest we've ever gotten to a weapon worthy of a sci-fi movie.

Every single weapon like the GR-1 Anvil, whether it's a handheld railgun or a gigantic one, runs on the same principle: using electricity to propel a projectile to insane speeds. Using high-energy magnetic fields from electromagnets, a railgun can send a projectile to current max speeds of Mach 6, according to PopularMechanics. That's equivalent to 5,400 miles an hour.

Here's a perspective. A typical gunpowder-fired projectile at full speed is about half the speed of a railgun projectile. And it's this speed (called hypersonic speed) that makes a railgun a very, very powerful weapon.

In fact, the insane potential of a railgun in terms of power is so high that the US Navy wanted to deploy these weapons on their modern destroyer ships.

Making A Handheld Railgun

A handheld railgun like the GR-1 Anvil, which is light enough to be fired like a typical rifle, is already a technological marvel on its own. Shrinking the tech down to a less lethal package for a weapon with its destructive potential is amazing.

But does this mean more people will be walking around with railguns now? Not likely. The GR-1 Anvil's asking price of $3,375 is already a great barrier to this kind of situation. What it does mean, however, is that the future of guns is starting to look a lot like science fiction in real life.

Related: Japan Just Successfully Fired The World's Most Powerful Laser

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Written by RJ Pierce