The first at-sea test of the U.S. Navy's electromagnetic railgun developed by BAE Systems is scheduled later this summer but might be delayed since the warship that will test this futuristic weapon hasn't been selected and prepped for the trials.

This might mean another delay in testing a railgun mounted aboard a navy warship, perhaps until later this year. The warship on which the railgun was to have been deployed, the USNS Trenton (T-EPF-5), an expeditionary fast transport ship (EPF) of the Military Sealift Command, began its first operational deployment on Dec. 20, 2016.

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Trenton is now forward deployed to U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa Command's area of operation, supporting the United States Sixth Fleet. She was supposed to have begun testing the railgun in the summer of 2016.

The tests scheduled for 2016 would have involved assessing the ability of the BAE Systems railgun to perform naval surface fire support against static floating targets 25 to 50 nautical miles (46 to 93 km) distant.

The railgun would have fired GPS-guided hyper velocity projectiles (HVPs) each weighing 44 lbs. There were supposed to have been 20 planned firings off Florida.

There are six operational EPFs plus four more building. The ship's paltry main armament consists of four M2 .50 caliber machine guns. Railguns are specifically intended as shore bombardment weapons capable of accurately hitting over-the-horizon targets more than 160 kilometers distant.

The addition of railguns to the EPFs will allow this vessel to actively support the troops they land with sustained and accurate shellfire.

The first Navy warship to be armed with a railgun as its main gun armament, however, will be the USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG-1002), a Zumwalt-class destroyer currently being built at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works. The destroyer has an expected delivery date in 2018.

Plans call for an EM railgun to replace the 155 mm gun mounted ahead of the Lyndon B. Johnson's deck house. The Zumwalt-class and the Spearhead-class are currently among the only surface combatants that can generate the enormous electric power needed to continuously fire an EM railgun at land and naval targets.

TagsU.S. Navy, electromagnetic railgun, BAE Systems, USNS Trenton (T-EPF-5), expeditionary fast transport ship, hyper velocity projectiles, USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG-1002)