Electro-magnetic Launch Facility

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Dundrennan is a site for controversial electro-magentic 'super-gun' trials on behalf of the US military. The 'Super-Gun' is intended to be the main armament of the Marine Expeditionary Family of Fighting Vehicles (MEFFV), the replacement of the US Marine Corps' Light Armored Vehicle and the M1A1 Main Battle Tank that will reach their end of service lives in 2015 and 2020 respectively. The experimental electro-magnetic gun (EMG) will be able to launch a shell at 7500-mph, faster than 2,400 meters per second, and destroy a tank more than five miles away.

Under secret development by the US for almost 30 years, with the UK as a junior partner, the gun uses magnetic coils to create a pulse of energy to hurl a projectile at more than five times the top speed of Concorde, or more than two miles per second. The gun will be able to fire projectiles at more than double the speed of shells fired by British and American tanks in the Gulf whose shells travel at around 3000mph. Because of the projectile's speed it will tear through armour and buildings, even though each projectile will be only about a foot long and as narrow as a broom handle. The force at which the projectile hits its target will be so great, shattering ceramic plates, slicing through steel and melting carbon that it is unlikely to require any explosive warhead. Due to its small size, scientists believe tanks will be able to carry three times as many shells.

The fact the electro-magnetic gun was to be tested in Scotland only leaked out when it was mentioned by the Pentagon's leading military scientist, Mike Andrews, to delegates at a defence conference in Washington is 2003. He told them the system was ready, but had not yet been used at full power, adding: "Probably the only place in the world we can do that is Kirkcudbright." Low rate initial production of the MEFFV is expected to start sometime between 2018 and 2020.

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