Courtesy of Raytheon Missile Systems
The Phalanx 1B Close-In Weapon System could be a "last line of defense" for ships. The weapon fires 3,000 to 4,500 armor-piercing rounds per minute. The new version features infrared radar.
Posted on 05/19/2005 10:24:09 AM PDT by Righty_McRight
The U.S. Army is looking at a Raytheon-made ship-defense system to shoot down mortar rounds that are fired at U.S. troops in Iraq.
The Army is studying Raytheon's Phalanx Close-In Weapon System - a radar-guided, ship-mounted version of a multibarreled Gatling gun - among several technologies to counter mortar and small-rocket threats, the company and the Army said.
The program is called C-RAM, short for "counter rocket artillery mortar" system.
The Phalanx is made by Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems in Louisville, Ky.
The Army has received two of the latest Phalanx 1B systems for evaluation under a Navy contract signed in March, said John Eagles, spokesman for Raytheon Missile Systems in Louisville, which employs about 350.
A "last line of defense" for ships, the Phalanx is a rapid-fire, computer-controlled radar and 20-millimeter gun system that can automatically track and destroy close-range enemy threats such as low-flying cruise missiles, small boats and helicopters. Since 1979, more than 850 Phalanx systems have been built and deployed in the navies of 22 allied nations, Raytheon says.
Firing 3,000 to 4,500 armor-piercing rounds per minute, the Phalanx was battle-tested by the British during the Falklands War. The advanced Phalanx 1B version includes advanced Forward Looking Infrared Radar and beefier gun barrels.
"The capability is there; the capability has been proven," Eagles said.
"The Army knows that the second-most-lethal threat they've got over there is mortars," he said, citing improvised bombs as the top threat.
Mortars are short-barreled, portable artillery weapons used to lob shells at targets within a few miles. They can be set up, fired and packed up in a matter of minutes, making it difficult for defenders to target mortar teams.
Harvey Perritt, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Monroe, Va., confirmed that the Army is researching ways to counter the mortar threat and that Raytheon is one of the contractors involved.
Perritt declined to give any further details of the project.
A military analyst said the Army is considering the Phalanx along with other countermeasures, including adapted anti-aircraft guns and rockets that detonate in the path of incoming projectiles, spewing out a pattern of shrapnel to increase the likelihood of a hit.
"The (insurgent) mortar teams are a problem, and they are looking at a number of different approaches to the problem," said John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org.
"The enemy mortar teams know the U.S. snipers can't get out more than a mile or so" to shoot them, Pike added.
Pike said the Phalanx is a well-regarded ship-defense weapon, though it's seen little combat action with the U.S. Navy.
One possible drawback of using the Phalanx system, Pike said, is the danger its rapid-fire hail of projectiles poses to U.S. troops and civilians.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., is seeking to earmark $75 million in fiscal 2006 funding to develop and field a C-RAM system, said Joe Kasper, Hunter's press secretary.
Tucson firm gets AF contract
Tucson-based NP Photonics Inc., a supplier of fiber-optic and laser components, has been awarded a two-year, $750,000 Phase II Small Business Innovation Research contract by the Air Force Research Laboratories at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque.
The SBIR contract will allow NP to further develop its compact "Panoramic Optical Power Amplifier," which uses the company's proprietary fiber-optic technology to amplify two-dimensional images, the company said.
Amplification of dimly lighted images is important in many military applications, particularly laser tracking of remote targets, the company said.
The company, located in the University of Arizona Science and Technology Park, 9030 S. Rita Road, also recently expanded its Scorpion line of fiber-optic light sources for telecommunications, research and sensor applications.
Gah! I CIWS to defend against mortar fire?? Who'll defend against the CIWS! Nevermind where to put it (without it becoming a target).
Gah! A CIWS to defend against mortar fire?? Who'll defend against the CIWS! Nevermind where to put it (without it becoming a target).
It would also happily (and automatically) ventilate anything moving towards the base at more than 30mph. Can we say "speed limit enforced by R2D2 with a hardon"?
Put it behind the walls of the Green Zone. Anything comes over the walls, the CIWS shreds it.
I gather it's a "baby" version of the C-Wiz..but still..the friendly fire risk is great..
DING!!!
Usually not on Americans, what's your point? :) You can get 20mm time-fused rounds that will blow themselves up after a couple of seconds of flight time.
That said, a version in 7.62 would probably work better.
Affectionately known as "R2-D2" to former Navy personnel, you don't want to be on the receiving end of that barrel.
r2d2 with chubbie, coming soon to a battlefield near you.
Gunner's Ping!!
This could work. But I think that it will be mostly ineffective simply because of the possibility of massive collateral damage.
20,000 20mm rounds impacting a neighborhood will kill a pile of kids. Whether they actually got hit by our rounds or not.
Only a SWAG but could 6 or more shooters with RPG's volley fired along with a coordinated mortar attack from three tubes jam this puppy ??.......wonder what it's capability is to counter multiple targets at once ?
Two words: Land Battleship.
It's a commonly held belief in the fleet that CWIS actually stands for, "Christ it won't shoot!" Anyone with CWIS experience will appreciate the acronym and humor. Did I spell that right?
The chubbie of DOOM!! LOL
saturating the defenses? sure. any defense can be 'whelmed by volume.
That should be CIWS. As for me CICS is correct.
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