Michael Wales points out part of a Michael Yon report posted last week:
One interesting story of note from what will hopefully be among Michaels final full days in Camp Victory: Last night, he was awakened by what sounded like cannon fire coming from a chain gun. Even with as much time as Michael has spent around war and battle, he had no idea what it was.
Turns out the army was testing a new anti-mortar system. Its sort of a giant machine gun that can shoot mortar rounds out of the sky. It tracks the incoming mortars with radar and then shoots them down. Given the size of the rounds, Michael was wondering what would happen if they missed their targets. They were big enough that they could rip a city apart if they missed the target and fell to the ground. Turns out, the rounds explode after a certain time in the air and cant hit the ground. Smart.
It sounds as if this might be the C-RAM (Counter-Rockets, Artillery, Mortar) Land-Based Phalanx Weapon System (LPWS) system first shipped to Iraq in 2005. (See R2-D2 vs. Mortar Rounds, also posted at MO). Most details of the program are still classified, but it’s basically a Phalanx CIWS Block 1B on a trailer. According to a 2005 article in Air Defense Artillery Magazine:
LBPWSclick for bigger
The Army made slight reconfigurations to the Navy system to integrate it into the Armys ground defense mission and command and control structure. The 20mm, six-barrel Phalanx gun system and its search and track radars are trailer-mounted to allow movement to key military sites. Figure 1 shows the basic layout. The Phalanx is familiar to some air defenders because it is similar to the Vulcan air defense gun system, which was the mainstay of divisional air defense battalions in the 1970s through the early 1990s.
The Forward Area Air Defense Command and Control (FAAD C2) system is one of the technologies used to integrate the C-RAM intercept system with other presently fielded Army and joint service systems. The FAAD C2 software and hardware solution allows the C-RAM system to communicate freely with existing air defense sensors and other Army battle command systems. The C-RAM unit uses the Air and Missile Defense Work Station (AMDWS) to pass information to other Army battle command systems. Put together, these tools will allow soldiers working in engagement operations cells to easily integrate a C-RAM battery into the defense of a forward operating base.
See CIWS now does surface targets, too for more on the new Block 1B Phalanx CIWS, both naval and land-based varieties.
An ADA Magazine article from last year has more info and organizational background on the system. The Canadians are looking at fielding a similar system.
My guess would be that Yon saw/heard this baby in action. In fact, the distinctive sound of the Phalanx firing can be used as a sort of “get down now” alarm.
While the actual performance of the C-RAM hasn’t been made public, it’s certainly an example of our continuing efforts to evolve our capabilities to meet the challenges we face. The next step for this would probably be to find a way to make it more mobile in order to move with maneuvering units in the field.
Yes, directed energy will be the way to go when we can. But until we can, R2-D2 will help hold down the fort.
–cross-posted by Murdoc
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Good Morning Folks,
Althought the Phalanx is a proven system with the Navy, but is now being replaced it seems to me that this is like going after a fly with a hammer. The possability of collateral civilian causalities and property damage seem to be very high with stray 20mm flying around, this just seems to be the wrong solution to the problem of random mortar fire into American bases.
How about trying keepping Iraqi nationals off bases so they can’t regester targets, reduce the size of these bases like getting rid of Burger Kings etc. to provide smaller and fewer targets and more and more agressive foot patrols outside of these FOB’s.
Another solution might be to let Iran know that we don’t welcome the importation of there home made/grown K-16 or their K-14 60mm or there K-18 120mm mortars, 81mm Mortars into Iraq.
ALLONS,
Byron Skinner
Now what the Army should do is attach a counter-sniper system to the gun and use in what I like to call the “street sweeper” configuration for counter-insurgency operations.
The C-RAM uses a special .50 cal fragmentation round that’s fused to explode at a specific altitude (sorry I don’t recall the acronym at the moment). Personnel inside the wire are much more likely to feel and hear the rain of shrapnel than civilians outside. Some dropped to the ground near me and it reminded me of very large raindrops.
To see it an hear it is a wonder. Visually a stream of rounds (some tracer) head upward, followed by detonation at the rounds at the fused altitude. It was like July 4th fireworks. Five seconds of firing, the red stream of rounds, followed by “pop pop pop ….. pop pop …. pop pop” up in the sky.
Describing the sound is difficult, it’s like nothing you’ve ever heard before. There’s a wind-up and wind-down sound, and in between a high speed firing period of perhaps 5 seconds.Like I said its hard to describe, but imagine a huge dental drill, or some enormous piece of landscaping machinery like a big chainsaw (minus the two-cycle engine). Better yet, combine those two sounds together.
My hooch was near one of the C-RAM units, and my office near another, and during testing they would light ‘em up with no warning at all and I’d jump halfway from my chair or the sack. They were extremely loud, even from 100 or 200 yards away.
Its easy so give comments when you are not the one out there getting a mortar in your butt.
SGT. De Leon, Manuel
it’s certainly an example of our continuing efforts to evolve our capabilities to meet the challenges we face.