Based on a 1973 design by GenDyn, the Phalanx Close-in weapon system (CIWS) commonly referred to by the GMGs that have to work with them as R2’s after the Star Wars droid that it resembles, has in the past forty years become the standard last-ditch defense against incoming enemy anti-ship missiles. Its 20mm Gatling gun, capable of a ripping off 75 20×102mm rounds per *second* has certainly proven to be effective in tests against drones. I’ve seen them in test shots first hand and they nearly make you shit your pants when they fire.
Luckily there hasn’t been a lot of real world tests of the system as the Brits didn’t have them in 1982 when the Argies kept firing Exocets from over the horizon, and the USS Stark had hers in a standby mode and the CIWS station unmanned when the Iraqis hit her with two of the same in 1987. There is much debate on whether Phalanx can hack the new series of hyper-sonic Russian missiles, which is why it is being augmented by the Evolved Sea Sparrow and RAM missiles.
Nevertheless, over the years, many ship drivers felt that the CIWS could do more than just looking good and being ready to shoot down sea-skimming Silkworm missiles. That led to the Block 1B PSuM (Phalanx Surface Mode) update that has been arriving in the fleet over the past decade. The mod added a forward looking infrared (FLIR) sensor slaved to a automatic acquisition video tracker to allow the weapon to be used against surface targets.
Now the CIWS can track and smoke surface contacts ranging from floating mines to armed sampams to 17,000-ton fleet stores ships.
What?
ATLANTIC OCEAN (Oct. 27, 2010) Rounds from a Mk-15 Phalanx Close-in Weapon System (CIWS) from the guided-missile destroyer USS Mitscher (DDG 57) impact the ex-USNS Saturn during a sinking exercise. Mitscher and other ships assigned to the George H.W. Bush Carrier Strike Group fired live ammunition at Saturn. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Leonard Adams/Released)– Click to big up
In a queer twist of fate, the USNS Saturn, seen abve getting plastered by 20mm rounds, started life as the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) Stromness of Her Majesty’s fleet. During the Falkland Islands War in 1982, she carried over 400 green berets of 45 Commando Royal Marines to the beach landing in San Carlos Water– then spent weeks dodging close-flying Argentine A-4 and Mirage attacks where a CIWS or three would have come in extremely useful.
The new 1B Surface CIWS is supposed to be the standard throughout not only the Navy but the Coast Guard (on the new National Security Cutter and legacy 270-foot Bear class WMECs) by 2015
