A rail gun shooting a BIG ASS tungsten rod would cause the platform to need to be moved back into position and the rod will still be traveling laterally at 27,000 Kph. It sounds less practical again. Think about it, it is going sideways way faster than any speed that will be imparted by the rail gun. The rail gun is like a BB gun compared to the orbital speeds. The useage of fuel to change the trajectory is more practical in it's impracticality than a rail gun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi-BDIu_umo
Here is a vid of a railgun from 2017, note the projectile would be very small compared to the rods we are talking about. There is a reason they were looking to deploy them on surface warships. Large (huge) and power consumption (massive) and a large object with lots of mass to shoot it from that isn't going to fly off to Alpha Centuri the first time they fire it.
A rail gun shooting a BIG ASS tungsten rod would cause the platform to need to be moved back into position and the rod will still be traveling laterally at 27,000 Kph. It sounds less practical again. Think about it, it is going sideways way faster than any speed that will be imparted by the rail gun. The rail gun is like a BB gun compared to the orbital speeds. The useage of fuel to change the trajectory is more practical in it's impracticality than a rail gun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi-BDIu_umo
Here is a vid of a railgun from 2017, note the projectile would be very small compared to the rods we are talking about. There is a reason they were looking to deploy them on surface warships. Large (huge) and power consumption (massive) and a large object with lots of mass to shoot it from that isn't going to fly off to Alpha Centuri the first time they fire it.