[Porsche-O-Phile]

Missiles are expensive. Particularly guided/smart munitions. Once the initial hardware is installed, these things are dirt cheap - the energy is a non-issue with nuclear reactors. Ability to sit offshore and pummel targets all day long becomes very beneficial versus using the same number of high-dollar guided missiles or smart munitions.

Very cool technology.

As said before, this isn't even close to orbital velocity. Yes, it could be attained but it would be a much bigger apparatus. There was a proposal I remember seeing a long time ago (maybe from "Cosmos" or some such) using a railgun type setup running up a mountainside - the idea being that it would allow the acceleration to be gradual enough to not destroy payloads all the way to orbital velocity to deliver stuff to space-based stations or other facilities/crafts. Theoretically possible with today's technology.

To get people into space would require a much longer run - the Space Shuttle limits acceleration to about 3gs and it takes all the way from FL's east coast to roughly the Indian Ocean to accomplish that. I don't think a rail track that long would be built anytime soon given our current budget situation... Admittedly they might be able to shorten the run by using higher g accelerations but that reaches a practical limit pretty quickly (human physiological limitations).