[mnehring]

Some of the photos they had of the early 6 megajoule prototypes were heating the air behind it to a plasma. Take this image into consideration that there was no actual explosive used to launch this. (then think about how much more powerful this new one is)..

[Strategerist]

Eh, a lot of that plasma in that is actually a sign that in that old test the railgun wasn’t quite perfected yet; it comes from rail erosion, arc transition between the barrel and armature, and severe arcing at the muzzle, all of which damge the gun.