Army Phalanx Gun Arrives in Iraq

defencetalk.com ^ | Mar 25, 2008 | defencetalk.com

[stuartcr]

Collateral damage is acceptable for our side and if it isn’t against us.

[NTHockey]

>>I saw one on the USS Wisconsin in ‘92. The thing sounded like a chain saw at full throttle.

Nothing beats an F-4 on afterburner and a hangover. Two of them did that at MCAS Beaufort, SC one Saturday morning and I hit the deck in pain.

[SJSAMPLE]

Unlike DIVAD, however, the CIWS systems have proven themselves during extensive testing.

The videos that I’ve seen of this new unit in testing are very impressive.

[SJSAMPLE]

The HIND couldn’t take .50cal rounds, let alone 20mm.

[SJSAMPLE]

In the testing videos that were done at night, you can see the 20mm rounds detonate in the air. You can actuall seen them detonate high, the increasing lower as they try to detonate near the incoming projectile. Proximity or radar-set time fuzes. Yes, they did think of gravity ;)

[AzSteven]

They want to use that in Baghdad? That sounds like a really bad idea - that’s a LOT of lead being spewed out there, and those rounds eventually come back down to earth. Baghdad is a pretty large city - I imagine those civilians downrange in the city will be getting some unpleasant lead showers.

[Allegra]

Iraq’s getting quite bumpy agian all of a sudden...Well, Baghdad is, anyway.

[green iguana]

Thank you - hadn’t thought of that.

[thackney]

The General Electric GAU-8/A Avenger rotary cannon fires 3900 rpm rounds per minute.

The new land based Phalanx is capable of firing up to 4,500 rounds per minute.

http://www.raytheon.com/products/stellent/groups/public/documents/content/cms04_023130.pdf

Granted, those depleted uranium 30 mm pack a bit more punch with each shot.

[Levante]

“Didn’t the Army used to have a 20mm vulcan on an M113 chassis - can’t remember the number...”

The M163:

http://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m163.htm

[thackney]

To minimize collateral damage, Centurion™ Weapon System fires self-destruct rounds. Studies show that residue from self-destructed rounds causes virtually no damage.

http://www.raytheon.com/products/stellent/groups/public/documents/content/cms04_023130.pdf

[RedRightReturn]

So, you’re the guy in THAT video!!!

Almost as scary as the one where the missile decks weren’t clear when the VLS hatch opens and the guy got the surprise of his life...

[RGRX]

Mosul, Diwaniyah, Najaf and Basra are catching it as well.
Be safe.

[Wallace T.]

Using a Russian carrier to haul our military equipment makes as much sense as the British or the French military using German contractors in the 1930s. Russia is the enemy of the United States as much as it was in the days of Stalin and Brezhnev. The Russian secret service and military intelligence and its Soviet predecessors have manipulated Muslim militants and Arab nationalists since the 1950s. Sadaam Hussein had close ties with the Soviets and his Ba'ath party espoused an ideology that mixed nationalism, fascism, and Marxism. The Middle East and Southwest Asia have been an arena of conflict between Britain and the United States as its successor and Russia under its various governments since the mid-19th Century. This conflict has been called the Great Game, and in some respects the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are drawn on lines similar to the Crimean War and the Anglo-Afghan Wars. Arab nationalism, ethnic irredentism, and Muslim radicalism have been a part of the mix, but the core of the conflicts is the Anglo-American/Russian rivalry.

What is needed in the Middle East is a serious dose of realism, as opposed to the defeat and retreat views of liberals and many libertarians and the Wilsonian fantasies of the Bush administration. The Muslims do not "hate us for our freedoms", but because we are there. Yet our withdrawal will cause Russia and China to fill the power vacuum. It is time to give up any fantasy of turning Iraq into a multicultural, integrated democracy. We need to smash the forces hostile to the West with extreme prejudice, place a pro-Western dictator into power, and get out. If Iraq needs to be partitioned, so be it; the country was an artificial construct by the Allied Powers in the wake of World War I as much as Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia were.

[archy]

Didn’t the Army used to have a 20mm vulcan on an M113 chassis - can’t remember the number...

The Hind was designed to shrug it off

Yep, the M163 Vulcan Air Defense System, which we called *SPAAG*, which in the Diesel-engined M113A1 chassis version was the replacement for our old twin-40mm *Dusters* on the M41 tank chassis, which used a mogas engine. The M163 could at least keep up with our M60A1 tanks over uneven or rough ground, and were still amphibious if their ammo was carried in an additional vehicle.

I don't think the Hind-D was all that able to shrug off 20mm Vulcan fire, though- I once saw an old French M24 tank chewed apart by multiple .50 MG fire, with parts and pieces flying off here and there, the tracks being cut and dropping off, and eventually, a largish hole being torn through the turret armor. I doubt that the relatively thin armor of a helo could have stood up as well or as long, and certainly not against repeat 20mm hits.

But even so, the proposed replacement for the M136, an M48A5 tank chassis with the 30mm GAU-8 gun of the A-10 *Warthawg* mounted would have been a real nightmare for any Gorbach crew who tried to get in close enough to use guns, rather than their standoff missiles...in which case the accompanying M113 with the quad-Chapparal missile launcher was to take over. Sadly, they dropped the 30mm-gun AAA tank, AKA *Skink II* in favor of the DIVADS Sergeant York and its ho-hum twin-40mm gun...

[SJSAMPLE]

Look up CRAM or C-RAM on YouTube and you’ll see some cool videos.

[ryan71]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgpQBZF2sZQ

[ansel12]

Check out this video of a sailor walking across the deck when a missle launches.

During a lauch drill, a sailor inadvertantly walks across the lower stern missle deck.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2299004438389621231&hl=en

[steel_resolve]

OH HELL YES.

[SJSAMPLE]

Do you remember 0an eight-wheeled sled-type vehicle with the 20mm or 30mm mounted?

I recall seeing a demo at Ft. Knox back in 1985. The sled was very low to the ground an capable of some pretty cool pivot steer. The driver was way up front in a near recline and the gun was fully exposed.