A team of Russian scientists has successfully tested the country's first railgun, which relies on electromagnetic forces rather than explosives or propellant, according to RIA Novosti.

Railguns are powered by electromagnetic conductors instead of gunpowder or explosives, allowing them to inflict major damage; Russian scientists have successfully test-fired the country's first such weapon.

According to scientists, they managed to use the device to fire bullets at an incredibly fast velocity of 11 kilometers per second (regular military guns fire bullets at about 2 km/s). This is something that they said is enough to allow an object to overcome gravity and reach the Earth's orbit, and almost enough to allow it to enter outer space.

As weapons, railguns could prove to be especially effective in that the high kinetic energy possessed by the projectiles they fire using electromagnetic forces allows them to ably penetrate objects such as armor or ship bulkheads.

The US Navy has been working on the creation of such weaponry since the mid-2000s, when the first prototypes of such systems were installed on board a new generation of destroyers.

Earlier this year, Franz Klintsevich, the first deputy of the Russian Upper House's Defense and Security Committee, said that "even if the Americans achieve a breakthrough in this direction, Russia does not have to answer with symmetrical measures."

He added that Russia has "many opportunities it could employ if needed, in order not to allow the power balance in the world to change."

Source: Sputnik News