By Jeremiah Jacques • September 14

The Chinese military will test the world’s first electromagnetic surface-to-surface rail-gun rockets in Tibet, according to reports by the government-run Science and Technology Daily.

The program’s chief scientist Han Junli described the project as the first known of its kind, and told Science and Technology Daily last month that it has been progressing “with great breakthroughs.”

While conventional rockets usually only use explosive powder for the initial thrust, the electromagnetic rail gun also employs technology similar to that used by the catapult launchers that the United States and China are developing for their newest aircraft carriers.

This “can give the rocket a very high initial speed on its launching stage,” Han said.

This translates into a longer range.





China and India share a border along Tibet, which has often been a flashpoint for Chinese-Indian tensions.

In 1962, the two sides fought a brief war there, and last year, it was the location of a 73-day standoff between Chinese and Indian soldiers.

If the rail-gun rockets turn out to be effective, the Chinese would be able to saturate targets in India with inexpensive but highly destructive rockets.

“Rockets are much cheaper than missiles, although less accurate.

If they are mass-deployed, they can excel at saturation fire to create intensive destruction to a bigger range of area,” Zhou Chenming, a military expert based in Beijing, told the South China Morning Post.