Forget "pew pew pew," the boomsticks are here

[Cray]

Nah. You'll reduce some of the wear, but you've still got what basically amounts to a plasma explosion inside the barrel of your gun, and there aren't many materials that will stand up to that.

Sounds like a challenge.

I bet an answer could be found in coatings before you need to get to cold plasma armatures. There are some low friction, arc-resistance coatings in the electrical industry today like cadmium oxide.

In the worst case, you might try sacrificial rails. After every few rail shots, eject the rails and slide in some new ones.

I believe that is exactly what the naval railguns will do. It'll still be cheaper than a bunch of cruise missiles or antiship missiles.

The Navy probably doesn't mind because their battleship guns only had a barrel life of a few hundred rounds. Barrel wear is a known issue for them.