laststandonzombieisland

The Farragut-class guided missile destroyer leader USS King (DLG-10) is underway, circa 1973, with the prototype “Phalanx” close-in weapon system on her fantail for tests.

King, a 5,600-ton tin can, carried a twin Mark 10 Mod O launcher for Terrier/Standard-ER missiles rear with two directors and a Mark 16 matchbox launcher for ASROC/Harpoon forward. Her main gun was a Mk 42 5″/54. Commissioned with a pair of twin 3″/50 Mark 33 radar-directed guns in 1960, she shipped out with the prototype CIWS in 1973, taking up space on her VERTREP area over the stern.

That original system was a lot bulkier than what we know as Phalanx today.

King would land her prototype CIWS in 1975, with the firing model fitted to the hulked WWII-era Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer, USS Alfred A. Cunningham (DD-752), fresh off starring in Don Knotts’ ASW epic, The Incredible Mr. Limpet.

Decommissioned in 1971 and unmanned, ex-Cunningham was anchored off the California coast and used as a target with her CIWS turned on and allowed to do its thing while the fleet chucked almost two dozen Walleyes and Mavericks at the old tin can.

Cunningham’s wonder gun downed them all.

Taking lessons learned, a pre-production CIWS was shipped out and installed on the Forrest Sherman-class destroyer USS Bigelow (DD-942) in 1977 for final sea trials.

The tests and evaluation were completed in a record five years. Phalanx Block 0 production started in 1978, and the system achieved IOC aboard USS Coral Sea (CVA-43) two years later.

However, the early marketing photos published in Jane’s showed the ordnance-killing mount on Cunningham and the installation on King.

With that, the gun has evolved through Block 1, Block 1 BL1, Block 1A, and Block 1B over the past several decades and just finally bagged its first for-real at sea “kill,” with the Burke-class USS Gravely (DDG-107) splashing a Houthi cruise missile via Phalanx recently.

As for King, she never did receive a production CIWS. Reclassified DDG-41 in 1975, she continued her career without it until she was decommissioned at the close of the Cold War on 28 March 1991.