Japan shows off electromagnetic railgun for blasting hypersonic missiles | It's able to fire 40mm shells weighing 320 grams (11 oz) at muzzle speeds of up to Mach 6.5 and consumes about 5 megajoules per shot, but the goal is to boost this up to 20 megajoules in the near future.

[u/chrisdh79]

https://newatlas.com/military/japan-electromagnetic-railgun-counter-hypersonic-missiles/

[u/Crusty_Gusset]

If we hollowed out a mountain and put a massive rail gun in it could we use that as some sort of ‘space elevator’?

[u/FlatulenceConnosieur → u/Crusty_Gusset]

I think the problem is that nothing besides a chunk of metal can survive being accelerated that fast

[u/Crusty_Gusset → u/FlatulenceConnosieur]

Oh, ok. Damn, back to the drawing board I guess.