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ARMA 3 (2013)

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The Phalanx CIWS is a close-in weapon system used in water-based warfare, which targets incoming boats, torpedoes, missiles, and helicopters. The close-in weapon system (CIWS) is basically a point-defense weapon system, which targets a single object or limited area, for detecting and destroying short-range noxious objects of the enemy. It was designed and developed by General Dynamics (GD) Corporation and first fully equipped CIWS fitted over the war-ships in 1984. In fact, it is the only CIWS that is capable of automatic search, evaluation of target, detection of a target, tracking, and destruction of the target. The general design of Phalanx CIWS is mainly consists of a 20 mm Vulcan cannon, guided by radar, mounted on a 3-axes rotating base. The Vulcan cannon is a Gatling-style gun that is operated either mechanically or electrically. This gun has six barrels which gives it an extremely high firing rate (~6000 rounds per minute). Because of the high fatality rate and high accuracy, the Vulcan cannon is also known as the “Hand of God”.

The Phalanx CIWS is designed to operate at the last line of defense against the noxious objects of the enemy. Due to this, its range is designed to very short relative to modern Due to its design criteria, its effective range is very short relative to the range of modern anti-ship missiles; a general range of CIWS is about 2-9km. But, high speed with great accuracy makes the system a mortal weapon in the sea-face war. Apart from this, the system takes very few inputs from the target ship which makes it capable to operate very quickly. The three-phase AC electric current of 440 volts, is required for the operation of this kill-monger.
If we talk about the RADAR subsystem, it mainly consists of two antennas that work simultaneously to detect and destroy the target. The first antenna is used for searching the target, located inside the cylindrical dome of the weapon (the topmost portion of the weapon). This antenna helps the CIWS to obtain the critical information related to the target such as bearing (direction), range, velocity, altitude, etc. This information is analyzed by the CIWS computer and the target is locked. Once the computer identifies a target, the mount orients itself so that the Vulcan cannon face the target. From here onwards the second antenna; the tracking antenna starts its work. The tracking antenna precisely observes the target and finds out the probability of a successful hit. When the probability reaches its maximum value, the system automatically fires or informs the operator to fire. Meanwhile, the antenna continuously engaged in tracking the path of the target.
There are three kinds of armament blocks used in CIWS, in general. The first one is Block 0, which has a capacity to fire at a rate of three thousand rounds per minute and can hold 989 rounds of the magazine. Another one is Block 1, which also fires at the same rate that of Block 0, but it has a capacity to hold around 1550 rounds of the magazine. The third one is Block 1A, which has a capacity to fire about 4500 rounds per minute and can hold 1550 rounds of the magazine. Block 0 and Block 1 are hydraulically driven whereas the Block and newer 1A are pneumatically driven. The velocity of rounds, ejected from the CIWS, is ~1100 m/sec. the ammunition is made of tungsten or depleted uranium with discardable sabots. The velocity and material of the ammunition give it armor piercing capacity which can destroy the missile’s airframe and make it un-aerodynamic and hence destroys it effectively. The ammunition system has two types of conveyor belt; the first handles the loading of the magazine to the gun and the second takes off the empty shells out of the gun. To engage a target, Phalanx CIWS typically has to fire 100+ shots at a time, and each shot costs around 30 dollars, which means to destroy a million-dollar war-ship, only 3000 dollars have to be spent, amazing!!

The CIWS is not able to rectify between the friends and enemy. The CIWS just collects the real-time data, from its RADAR, of the ship to be the target and then rectify it on the basis of three important criteria;

1. CIWS observes the distance of the object or ship from them. If the distance between them is decreasing continuously then CIWS considers that object or ship as a target.

2. CIWS observes the direction and motion of the ship or object. If the direction of motion of the object or ship is such that it can hit the CIWS carrying ship, then CIWS considers that object or ship as a target.

3. CIWS has a minimum and maximum limitation of the speed of the target. If the target moves below the minimum or beyond maximum speed limitation, then CIWS cannot be able to engage the target.

#CRAM #Phalan #PhalanxCIWS

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