A high-speed electromagnetic weapon is something you would think only exists in your dreams. Yet, the U.S. Navy has finally designed an inexpensive futuristic gun that has brought science fiction to life.

According to Reuters, the railgun can fire “23-pound (10-kg) projectile at seven times the speed of sound using electromagnetic energy.”

An electromagnetic energy known as the Lorenz Force creates a magnetic field that can fire the projectile with the lowest possible recoil.

Compared to a missile, this new weapon’s projectile only costs $25,000. A missile usually ranges from $500,000 or more.

Unlike a missile, the railgun carries a magazine that never runs out.

Chief of Naval Research, Rear Admiral Matthew Klunder, says this is definitely the weapon the U.S. military will need to defeat enemies in war.

“It will help us in air defense, it will help us in cruise missile defense, it will help us in ballistic missile defense,” he said. “We’re also talking about a gun that’s going to shoot a projectile that’s about one one-hundredth of the cost of an existing missile system today.”

The electromagnetic railgun-which the Navy hopes to officially implement in 2018-has already been tested on land and now is being prepared for sea trials in 2016.

Two prototypes by BAE Systems and General Atomics have been used for testing. The Navy has decided to use BAE’s railgun for the second phase in trial and development.  

The railgun’s projectile consists of 32 megajoules of force, which one official says one of those can “move a one-ton object at about 100 mph.”

Klunder later told sources: “That … will give our adversaries a huge moment of pause to go: ‘Do I even want to go engage a naval ship? You could throw anything at us, frankly, and the fact that we now can shoot a number of these rounds at a very affordable cost, it’s my opinion that they don’t win.”

Check out the railgun blow up stuff: 

Image via YouTube