rail gun

American  

noun

1. a weapon consisting of a pair of parallel conductive rails, using a magnetic field and electric current to launch projectiles at very high velocity.

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Example Sentences

Among the changes are flying saucers that players can hack and then pilot, weapons like a rail gun that can shoot through structures and a scanning device, along with a crafting material called nuts and bolts that lets players make classic weapons that were previously removed from the game.

From The Verge

A Chinese warship that appears to be carrying a next-generation hypersonic rail gun has been spotted on social media, implying that China has become the first country in the world to develop the weapon.

From Fox News

China is known to tightly control its social media accounts, suggesting that it wants the image of the ship and the rail gun ─ an electromagnetic catapult designed to hurl projectiles at extremely high speeds ─ to be made public.

From Fox News

By carrying a rail gun, military forces would not need to transport explosive propellants or warheads, making the warships safer.

From Fox News

Once in the target planet’s gravitational field, the craft could use a tiny electromagnetic rail gun to fire payloads of microbes out of the back at a speed which cancelled out the craft’s forward motion.

From Economist