A recent report claims that China may be several years away from developing a rail gun warhead of its own. The Chinese design is reportedly based on MAHEM, which is secretly being developed for the Pentagon.

Popular Mechanics reported that MAHEM stands for Magneto Hydrodynamic Explosive Munition. Basically, it is a warhead that can be fitted on a handheld rail gun and most probably used as an anti-tank weapon.

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Any country that has perfected the technology will no longer have use for heavy guns or artillery and instead use rail guns that have a much powerful and devastating punch.

The Pentagon has revealed several projects related to MAHEM. One study was aimed at exploring the possibility of adjusting the magnitude of the blast yield of a warhead depending on the need. Another project, which was completed in 2014, was aimed at developing a shoulder lunched weapon armed with a warhead that could penetrate a military bunker. Lately, the United States military has reportedly been developing an Electromagnetic Explosive Warhead or EMEW. This newest warhead could be installed in drones to help controllers accurately direct and control the weapon.

Defense industry experts first got wind of MAHEM around seven years ago. But little information if any has been released by the U.S. government since then.

However, investigative journalists have been able to download a Chinese scientific paper on the web published two years ago regarding the subject.

The study, which is titled "Physical Modeling of Magneto Hydrodyanmic Explosive Munition and Detonation Control", is apparently the work of researchers from the Nanjing University of Science and Technology.

Experts familiar with MAHEM have observed that the Chinese study presents similar information and reveals just how much knowledge Chinese scientists have on the rail gun warhead technology. The Nanjing research paper includes complex diagrams and equations on how to increase the speed of projectiles as well as intimate details about the working parts of MAHEM such as flux generators.

China is currently the biggest manufacturer and vendor of commercial drones. Converting those drones for military purposes and fitting them with deadly MAHEM warheads would be a simple task for the Chinese military.

Tagsrail gun, MAHEM, magneto hyrdodynamic explosive munition, DARPA, anti-tank rail gun, anti-tank weapon, hand held rail gun, China anti-tank Rail gun