I remember years ago, being reluctantly involved in a scheme with a well-known university, not in this county, who wanted funding to replace hydraulic actuators with high-powered solenoids. They had developed a rather small and fairly dainty prototype and were looking for further funding from industry.
We used hydraulic actuators where the oil pressure was maintained by a nitrogen 'spring', thus allowing very high speeds, with high forces being developed at the same time.
My boss at the time was a great believer in high-tech, magic bullet-style solutions. Whilst he whipped himself up into a frenzy of expectation about never having an oil or nitrogen leak again, I worked out that the battery storage per actuator would be about the size of two shipping containers and, with three actuators per device, the cost of the batteries might just outweigh any possible overall improvement.
I believe that money did change hands, but I managed to avoid any further involvement and nothing ever came of it.
I didn't bother to raise any queries about the intensity of the electromagnetic pulse that would be generated at each shot, but I would have been reluctant to be nearby in the early trials.