Criminal Conviction Slows Navy's Futuristic Gun Project

A contractor convicted of fraud was defended by an official in the Office of Naval Research, who said the man's company provided vital components for the Navy's electromagnetic gun, a futurist weapon that will shoot hypersonic projectiles. Work on the project has already been set back by the man's legal troubles, the naval official claims.

Those delays may get worse. Srikanth Raghunathan was sentenced to 52 months in jail, and his wife to 40 months. Both pleaded guilty last year to making fraudulent statements to obtain multiple bank loans. As this article describes:

*According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan Conway, the couple used false documents, including doctored invoices, and fake bank statements, to obtain loans and lines of credit from a number of banks. *

*In all, the fraud cost dozens of banks and businesses more than $10 million. So why is the Office of Naval Research coming to their defense? Well, it turns out that Raghunathan's company, which specialized in nanotechnology, made some crucial contributions to the electr-magnetic gun, an effort to develop a futuristic gun that would launch hyerpsonic projectiles. So crucial was their contribution that the program manager claimed the whole effort was being set back without them. Another witness for the defense, Clifford Bedford, a program manager for the Office of Naval Research, said that Mr. Raghunathan was able to supply nanomaterials at a time when there was generally limited access. *

Since the criminal charges have been filed in the case, Mr. Bedford said there has been a nearly three-year delay in development because there has been no access to their product.

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"Anything that retards that process is essentially detrimental," he said. "The better our weapons are, the more effective our troops are."

*Mr. Raghunathan was able to produce a dozen different kinds of nanomaterials, while others could only make one or two. *

When asked by Mr. Conway if Mr. Bedford would change his mind about doing business with the couple based on their fraud conviction, the witness replied: That concern would be overcome by my need for the technology.

If you read the full article, you'll see couple didn't use the loans to finance a lavish life, but rather, put the money into their business to keep the venture afloat. That's still fraud. So, I'm sypathetic that the Navy needs their technology, but this particular weapon isn't going to be helping troops for another 15 years minimum (and likely longer).

In other words, it'll still be around when Raghunathan gets out of jail.

[For background Defense Technology International* did a good overview article on the electromagnetic gun program available here]*