The Apocalypse is Nigh: Navy Tests Futuristic Rail-Gun

According to an article posted to Digg, Fox news reports the US Navy is testing a high-powered futuristic rail-gun weapon that can fire a projectile at speeds up to Mach 5!

Of course, the language chosen, “railgun,” seems to be carefully chosen to accurately describe the weapon, but also incites some sci-fi and video game references that gain it notoriety in the press.

Are we really looking at the wave of future weapons we’ve been promised by science fiction, movies, and video games for years now? Time will tell – but there are definitely some neat projects in the works. The article (linked to above) also has an accompanying video of the weapon in action for you to see (Windows Media Required). How cool is that?

Several Digg comments also hail scientists to go ahead and create the dreaded BFG 9000, as featured in the popular video game series Doom.