Category Archives: weapons

And in Coast Guard News…

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Lots of interesting stories from the USCG that have likely slipped through under the radar for most in the past couple of weeks.

M4 profile, just the essentials

The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Calhoun (WMSL 759) recently offloaded more than 19,055 pounds of cocaine and marijuana valued at approximately $140.9 million in Port Everglades, Florida, the result of five interdictions in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea by interagency partners under JIATF-S.

Check out this GM2’s carbine (and holstered Glock), from Calhoun.

Petty Officer 2nd Class David Hopkins, a gunner’s mate aboard U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Calhoun (WMSL 759), watches illegal narcotics in Port Everglades, May 16, 2025. (Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jessica Walker)

The no-frills setup runs an Aimpoint Patrol Rifle Optic (PRO) red dot reflex sight on a QRP2 mount rather than an ACOG or Elcan. His short quad rail has an inexpensive ($125 if you shop around) Streamlight TLR RM2 1,000 lumen white light. Note the KAC 300M flip-up rear sight in case the Aimpoint takes a nap. Magpul PMAG and Mechanix gloves for the win.

USCG Hero remembered on DDG

The keel for the future USS Quentin Walsh (DDG 132), an Arleigh Burke-class Flight III guided missile destroyer, was laid down during a ceremony on 20 May at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Maine.

The ship’s sponsor is Madison Ann Zolper, great-granddaughter of the ship’s namesake, Coast Guard Capt. Quentin R. Walsh (USCGA 1933), who earned the Navy Cross for his heroic actions during the liberation of the strategic French port of Cherbourg in World War II.

Future USS Quentin Walsh’s (DDG 132) sponsor, Madison Ann Zolper, welded her initials into the ship’s keel plate for authentication during a keel laying ceremony at Bath Iron Works, Maine. (NAVSEA photos)

Cmdr. Quentin R. Walsh in his dress blues bearing his recently awarded Navy Cross Medal. U.S. Coast Guard photo.

Cmdr. Quentin R. Walsh in his dress blues bearing his recently awarded Navy Cross Medal. U.S. Coast Guard photo.

As detailed by the USCG Historian:

Armed with bazookas, hand grenades, rifles, and submachine guns, he and his party overcame sniper fire and blew open steel doors of underground bunkers.  About 400 of the Germans in the arsenal area surrendered.  Walsh’s command went on to capture Fort Du Homet and its garrison of 350 men. In all, his 53-man special force was credited with taking about 750 German prisoners and liberating 52 captured American paratroopers.

For his actions in and around Cherbourg beginning June 9, he received the Navy Cross.  The citation for the award noted:

“Heroism as Commanding Officer of a U.S. Naval party reconnoitering the naval facilities and naval arsenal at Cherbourg June 26 and 27, 1944.  While in command of a reconnaissance party, Commander Walsh entered the port of Cherbourg and penetrated the eastern half of the city, engaging in street fighting with the enemy. He accepted the surrender and disarmed 400 of the enemy force at the naval arsenal and later received the unconditional surrender of 350 enemy troops and, at the same time, released 52 captured U.S. Army paratroopers.  His determination and devotion to duty were instrumental in the surrender of the last inner fortress of the Arsenal.”

First visit to Nuku Hiva in over 150 years

The Bear-class 270-foot cutter USCG Cutter Harriet Lane (WMEC 903), the first of her class to be moved to the Pacific, has been roaming around recently. Last week, she called on Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia. In doing so, she is the first American warship to dock there since the sloop-of-war USS Vandalia in 1858.

USCG Harriet Lane (WMEC 903) at Nuku Hiva, CWO2 Michael Deaton & BM3 Joseph Curran

The windswept island has hosted Herman Melville and Robert Louis Stevenson in the past, along with the famed 46-gun frigate USS Essex in 1813, putting Harriet Lane in good company.

CG SF in the PI

While the USCGC Stratton was in the Philippines, forward deployed as part of DESRON 15, a det from the Coast Guard’s San Diego-based Maritime Security Response Team (MSRT) West has been working with the Philippine Coast Guard Special Operations Force in a dynamic training exercise in Puerto Princesa, leaving the question of what is better camo for sea ops, the green-based Scorpion OCP or the grey-based Camopat.

Photos by Petty Officer 3rd Class William Kirk:

Last Islands sent to Colombia

We’ve recently covered the recent decommissioning of the final three 110-foot Island class cutters on the beat in the U.S.– USCGC Liberty (WPB-1334), Mustang (WPB-1310), and Naushon (WPB-1311)-– long-serving in Alaska for the past 30 years. It seems they are headed south for continued service alongside each other, sisters to the end.

The decommissioned and disarmed USCGCs Naushon (WPB 1311), Mustang (WPB 1310), and Liberty (WPB 1334) transit through Seymour Narrows in British Columbia, Canada, in May 2025, heading from their longtime home in Alaska to San Diego and warmer climes. (U.S. Coast Guard photo courtesy of USCGC Mustang)

On 19 May, representatives from the Colombian Navy received the trio in a ceremony held at the port of San Diego through the Excess Defense Articles program. They will receive a refit in the States before the official handover.

Other members of the 49-member class have been transferred to Costa Rica, Georgia, Greece, Pakistan, Tunisia, and Ukraine. Only 14 have been scrapped. Not a bad run considering the last unit was delivered from Bollinger in 1992, and they had a 15-year planned lifespan.

Turn up the motivation

The crew of USCGC Kimball (WMSL 756) returned to their Honolulu home port on 9 May after an 84-day deployment to the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

While patrolling international waters off the Pacific coasts of Mexico, Central, and South America, Kimball’s crew interdicted five suspected drug smuggling vessels, seizing $191 million worth of cocaine and apprehending 18 suspected drug smugglers.

Maritime enforcement specialists from Tactical Law Enforcement Team South and U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Kimball (WMSL 756) crewmembers interdict a suspected drug smuggling vessel while patrolling the Eastern Pacific Ocean, March 4, 2025. The U.S. Coast Guard is increasing its presence in key areas to secure the U.S. maritime border against the flow of cocaine, fentanyl, and other illegal drugs. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Max Hanfland)

Note her embarked crew included at least two NWU III camo-wearing USN enlisted (left) balanced against the ship’s crew in blue, the TACLET team in OCP, and the HITRON guys in Nomex flight suits. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Austin Wiley)

A video of one of the intercepts showing TACLET at work. Note the Gen 5 G19s. The USCG notably uses them rather than the M17/M18.

Kimball also released a very well-done 90-second moto video of the patrol, leaning into not only the seizure operations but also showing some rare footage of the cutter’s CIWS and Mk 110 in live-fire action along with small arms and HITRON clips.

Muddy Rampage

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It happened 80 years ago this week.

Official period caption: “Soldiers of the 77th Infantry Division walk past mud-clogged tanks parked by the side of the road on Okinawa. 26 May 1945.”

U.S. Signal Corps Photo SC 208600. U.S. National Archives

The “tanks” are actually one of the more rarely seen armored vehicles in American service in WWII, the M8 Scott, an early 75mm self-propelled howitzer.

Offically known as “Howitzer Motor Carriage M8,” it picked up the easier moniker in a ode to “Old Fuss n Feathers” himself, Gen.Winfield Scott– the War of 1812 vet who lead the Army during the war with Mexico and the first year of the Civil War who later passed away at West Point just shy of his 80th birthday.

The M8 HMC was an interesting stop-gap vehicle. It used the hull, engine, tracks, and guts of the M5 Stuart light tank. It then substituted the 37mm popgun and the Stuart’s tiny turret for a new open-topped turret armed with a 75mm L18 M2 or M3 howitzer—an artillery piece that was essentially just an M1 howitzer modified for use in a vehicle.

Some 1,778 Scotts were made by the Cadillac division of General Motors from September 1942 to January 1944, and they were very useful in hill fighting due to the high angle of their guns.

“Members of the 758th Light Tank Bn. (Colored) fire their 75mm howitzer in support of infantry movements on the Fifth Army front. 4 April, 1945.” SC 329839

SC 329839 758th Light Tank Bn M8 Scott April 1945 4 April, 1945

M8 Scott HMC 75 howitzer passing a knocked-out Panther

Note that this M8 HMC is named “Laxative.”

M8 troop E, 106th Cavalry Recon Group, Karlsbrunn 6 February 1945

Post-war, they were quickly withdrawn, replaced with 105mm SPGs, but they went on to serve with U.S. allies such as Mexico and the KMT Army in exile in Taiwan for another two decades. They saw particularly hard Cold War service in Vietnam, first by the French and then by the Cambodians and South Vietnamese who inherited them.

M8 Scott 75mm howitzer motor carrier, October 1950, Pingtung exercise, ROC Taiwan, KMT

May 8, 1952 – French Indochina. A 75mm M8 howitzer advances on the Lang Khe road. Ref.: TONK 52-122 R37. © Raymond Varoqui/ECPAD/Defense

A much deserved show

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It happened 80 years ago today.

The crew of USS Texas (Battleship No. 35) assembled for a USO Show onboard in Leyte Gulf on 22 May 1945, relaxing after being relieved from the Battle of Okinawa.

Courtesy of the National Archives & Records Administration.

As detailed by the Battleship Texas Foundation, just the week prior:

USS Texas was relieved from the Battle of Okinawa after 50 days in action. Texas expended a staggering amount of ammunition in those 50 days:

14” – 2,019 rounds
5” – 2,643 rounds
3” – 490 rounds
40 mm – 3100 rounds
20 mm – 2205 rounds

While the battle was over for Texas on May 14, 1945, Okinawa was not secured until June 22nd. This long, protracted battle was grueling for the land forces but also exposed the Navy to near-constant air attacks. The Navy lost nearly 5,000 men and another 5,000 were wounded. 36 ships were sunk and over 350 were damaged. Texas emerged from her time off Okinawa unscathed in large part due to her crew’s constant state of readiness. Captain Charles Baker included the following praise in his after-action report:

“It is worthy of comment that this vessel remained in Condition I or I Easy [“battle stations”] throughout the entire period off the coast of Okinawa, some seven weeks. That the men took this without undue fatigue is a tribute to their spirit and physical condition. It is not believed that any lesser condition of readiness can meet adequately the emergencies of suicide bombers and suicide boats. The only answer to the approaching [kamikaze] is early and great volume of fire, using every gun that will possibly bear, and early warning by radar cannot always be relied upon. The men realized this and preferred to remain at their stations, resting and sleeping there as opportunity offered, rather than be called up frequently from below as would inevitably have happened. The rest period when it finally came, however, was much appreciated.”

-Captain Baker’s Report for the Battle of Okinawa, filed May 26, 1945

The only submarine museum in Africa has reopened

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The French-built Daphne-class submarine SAS Johanna van der Merwe (S99) was ordered in 1967 by South Africa for use by the SAN, one of 26 of Daphnes constructed during the Cold War for service in six different fleets around the world.

Commissioned in 1971, “JDM” gave lots of shadowy and unsung service during the assorted “Bush Wars” in the 1970s and 80s in which South Africa was a proxy for the West against the Soviets in Angola and Mozambique.

SAS Johanna van der Merwe Daphne-class submarine South African Navy by Tim Johnson

She reportedly took part in at least ten clandestine special operations, dropping commandos behind enemy lines. However, Söderlund details at least 11 commando runs by JDM as: Op Extend (June 1978), Op Lark 1, Op Bargain (January 1979), Op Artist (February/March 1980), Op Nobilis (July 1984), Op Legaro (September 1984), Op Magic (March 1985), Op Argon (May 1985), Op Cide (February/March 1986), Op Drosdy (May/June 1986), and Op Appliance (May/June 1987).

Kept in operation somehow despite layers of embargoes, she outlasted the Apartheid era in South Africa and was renamed SAS Assegaai in 1997 with the change in government in Jo’Burg.

Decommissioned in 2003 after a 32-year career, her three sisters in SAN service were cut up for scrap, but a shoestring operation over the past 22 years has finally saved her. While she spent a few years as a floating museum before closing to the public in 2015, the “Silent Stalker” is now preserved on shore in Simon’s Town. 

South Africa – Cape Town – 30 April 2025 – The Naval Heritage Trust (NHT) celebrated the official opening of the SAS Assegaai Submarine Museum in Simon’s Town. This milestone marks the culmination of years of dedication and hard work by NHT volunteers, donors, and stakeholders. This also happens to be the first submarine museum in Africa, a valuable tourism drawcard for the Western Cape. SAS Assegaai, formerly known as SAS Johanna van der Merwe, was a Daphné-class submarine of the South African Navy. Launc

South Africa – Cape Town – 30 April 2025 – The Naval Heritage Trust (NHT) celebrated the official opening of the SAS Assegaai Submarine Museum in Simon’s Town. This milestone marks the culmination of years of dedication and hard work by NHT volunteers, donors, and stakeholders. This also happens to be the first submarine museum in Africa, a valuable tourism drawcard for the Western Cape. SAS Assegaai, formerly known as SAS Johanna van der Merwe, was a Daphné-class submarine of the South African Navy. Launc

Adieu, Commandant Birot

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The 1,270-ton French patrouilleur de haute mer (PHM) Commandant Birot (F796) last week capped 41 years in commission with one final cruise, taking 18 of her former skippers on a sortie out of Toulon. The past commanders included Admiral Nicolas Vaujour, the current Chief of the Naval Staff.

Le mardi 13 mai 2025, en mer Méditerranée, le Patrouilleur de Haute Mer (PHM) Commandant Birot effectue sa dernière sortie des commandants à l’occasion de son départ en Posture permanente de sauvegarde maritime (PPSM), en présence de l’amiral Nicolas Vaujour, chef d’état-major de la Marine (CEMM).

The 16th of 17 Estienne d’Orves-class avisos, she entered service on 14 March 1984. Some 262-feet overall, she was equipped akin to a corvette or surveillance frigate with two MM38 Exocet anti-ship missiles, a 100m CADAM turret, four ASW torpedo tubes, and a six-tube 375mm Bofors ASW rocket launcher.

PHM Commandant Birot 

Deployed first based in Brest, then to the Pacific at French Polynesia and New Caledonia, Commandant Birot was been assigned to Toulon in 1995.

Most of her ASW gear was removed in 2009 when she re-rated as a PHM, traded for a twin Mistral manpads launcher and some smaller guns. She has been very active in recent years in a constabulary role off Libya during the unpleasantness there and on the migrant beat in North Africa.

It is always sad to see an old warrior off.

Le mardi 13 mai 2025, en mer Méditerranée, le Patrouilleur de Haute Mer (PHM) Commandant Birot effectue sa dernière sortie des commandants à l’occasion de son départ en Posture permanente de sauvegarde maritime (PPSM), en présence de l’amiral Nicolas Vaujour, chef d’état-major de la Marine (CEMM).

The vessel carries the proud name of LCDR Roger Richard Louis Birot, a professional French Navy officer (Ecole Navale ’25) who escaped the fall of France as the XO of the battleship Courbet only to perish when his first command, the Free French Navy’s Flower-class corvette Mimosa (K 11), was sunk by U-124 in June 1942 in the North Atlantic while escorting the Allied convoy ON 100.

Sting Ray

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Frozen in time, some 30 years ago.

A port bow view of the Spruance-class destroyer USS David R. Ray (DD-971) underway off San Diego, 8 January 1995.

Photo by PH3 Brewer. DN-SC-87-11564. National Archives Identifier 6419151.

Named in honor of HM2 Ray, who earned a posthumous MoH in Vietnam at the ripe old age of 24, DD-971, as with the rest of her class, was constructed at Pascagoula.

Commissioned 19 November 1977, she had an active career in the Pacific Fleet, conducting numerous Westpac cruises, extending to the sandbox where she ran interference with the Iranians in the Persian Gulf and clocked in during Desert Shield, earning a Southwest Asia Service Medal for the latter.

A test bed ship of sorts, she was the first ship to intercept a supersonic drone with the NATO RIM-7 Sea Sparrow then later became the Navy’s primary test platform for the Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) System, which you can see on her stern in the above shot, just aft of her No. 2. 5″/54 Mk 45 mount. She was later one of just two dozen “Sprucans” to substitute her 1970s ASROC mousetrap for a 61-cell VLS to sling Tomahawks.

Earning a trio of both Navy Meritorious Unit Commendations and Navy Expeditionary Medals across her abbreviated 23-year career, she was decommissioned in 2002 and later expended in a SINKEX.

What’s a little armor between friends

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Liezen, Styria, central Austria, May 1945. A Lend-Leased American-made M4A2(76)W VVSS Sherman in Russki livery (and with no muzzle brake) comes to the rescue of one of the Motherland’s T-34-85s.

LIFE Arnold E. Samuelson Photographer

Both tracks are from the Soviet 1st Guards Mechanized Corps, which had just “liberated” Vienna, some 140 miles to the East of Liezen, and was soon to be denoted as the “Vienna Order of Lenin Order of Kutuzov Mechanized Corps.”

This top image was apparently during a Victory Parade along with the U.S. 9th Armored “Phantom” Division, which they met at the demarcation line.

The 9th had just recently, in turn, liberated Zwodau and Falkenau an der Eger, both subcamps of the Flossenbürg concentration camp.

The Port of Gulfport implemented ‘continuous autonomous subsea surveillance’ on May 1

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There is no secret that the Navy has often used undersea surveillance sonar such as the German-made Cerberus anti-diver set for years in sensitive areas such as strategic ports, NSYs, and homeports.

For instance, more than 20 years ago:

050815-N-1722M-026 Pascagoula, Miss. (Aug 15, 2005) – Sailors assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit One Two (EODMU-12) Det 10 prepare to guide the Cerberus Swimmer Detection System into the water at Naval Station Pascagoula during the Gulf Coast Maritime Domain Awareness Initiative 2005. The initiative is being held at the Port of Pascagoula in cooperation with the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard, along with federal, state, and local agencies working together to enhance homeland security. U.S. Navy Photo by Photographer’s Mate 1st Class Michael Moriatis (RELEASED)

Plus, there are regular harbor inspections and exercises by USCGR PSUs and USNR MIUWUs, not to mention state and local dive teams and UXO/EOD dets.

Now the ante has been quietly upped in the form of full-time AUSVs.

I’ve covered the Ocean Aero Triton, which is capable of sailing autonomously for 3 months on solar and wind power at speeds of up to 5 knots, several times in the past couple of years. I see them a lot as the company is based here in Gulfport.

Up she comes.

It seems the Triton is now also “on the job” in the port, basically making a baseline scan of the bottom and then repeating the grid to look for new items which would be interesting to take a closer look at to see if they are, well, an old refrigerator, or a sea mine.

 

Leftovers

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An M270 150mm gun salvaged from the scuttled Danish cruiser Niels Juel, emplaced by the Germans at Frederikshavn, seen under new management circa May 1945– a beret-clad Danish resistance member with a British STEN gun. FHM-210592

When the Germans swept into Denmark in April 1940, the country, jutting like a finger out between the North Sea and Baltic Sea, had a few coastal artillery batteries dotting its shores, typically clustered around Copenhagen. These totaled just over 100 assorted guns in 10 batteries and forts.

The largest of these guns were five 30.5 cm MRK L/35 Krupp M1889 guns at the fortress island Middelgrundsfortet, accompanied by another dozen 17cm fortress guns from the same era, while similar fortress island Flakfortet had a half-dozen 8.3-inch M1913 guns. These works, built at the turn of the century and updated in the Great War and in the early 1930s when there was a real threat of war with neighboring Norway over Greenland (!), had guns mounted on barbette carriages and protected by armored shields and earthen ramparts. The ammunition and barracks areas were under concrete.

Middelgrundsfortet guns FHM-275366

Danish Cannon cleaning at Middelgrundsfortet THM-3280

Two Danish Navy conscripts present rifles in front of Middelgrundsfortet. Note the Krag rifles. THM-22156

Other batteries were simply guns removed from old warships, such as Kongelund Battery, on the southern end of the circa 1660s Copenhagen Fortress, which was armed in 1939 with four 150mm Bofors guns landed from the condemned coastal battleship Herluf Trolle.

Danish Den næstnordligste 7,5 cm kanon battery at Hørhaven, from guns taken from old torpedo boats

Caught unprepared due to tiny defense budgets, the Danes had several new batteries (Skagen-North, Läsö, Hjelm, Seelandsodde, Hornbek, et al) of surplus 5- and 6-inch guns planned but not finished.

Danish batteries in 1933, via Fortress Europe: European Fortifications Of World War II by JE Kaufmann.

Then came the Germans

The easy German fix to get around the Danish seacoast defenses around Copenhagen was to sail a converted passenger ship (Hansestadt Danzig) escorted by three gunboats, boldly into the capital city of the neutral country at 0420 when Operation Weserübung kicked off on 9 April 1940.

Filled with troops of the 2nd Bn, 308th Infantry Regiment, the men efficiently secured their objectives by 0600 on “Der Tag.”

Hansestadt Danzig landing troops in Copenhagen harbor during the invasion of Denmark, 9 April 1940

The Germans moved to rectify the condition of Danish coastal defenses and soon had two dedicated Marine Artillerie Bataillons (Nos. 308 and 309), rushed to Denmark within weeks to begin that sector’s length of the Atlantic Wall. Those two battalions were the first with the 10-battalion 180. Heeresküstenartillerie (HKAR) Dänemark, or coastal artillery regiment, was formed to oversee the enterprise.

Danish coastal artillery near Copenhagen operated by German gunners FHM-213114

Czech hedgehogs (Spærringer) at Hanstholm FHM-209998

By April 1945, at least 70 batteries existed in occupied Denmark in various states of construction and manning, with no less than 6,000 coastwise bunkers and 277 guns sized 3-inch or larger. The biggest pieces were giant, state-of-the-art, 15-inchers.

Just about every inch of the Danish coast was covered

As noted by a 1945 American survey, here are the guns by size and number:

 

7,5-cm – 15 batteries with total of 60 guns

8,8-cm –     5       ”                          19   ”

10,5-cm – 17        ”                          67   ”

12,0-cm –   3        ”                          16   ”

12,2-cm –   8        ”                          32   ”

12,7-cm –   5        ”                          20   ”

15,0-cm – 10        ”                          40   ”

17,0-cm –   2        ”                          16   ”

19,4-cm –   1        ”                            4   ”

21,0-cm –   1        ”                            6   ”

30,5-cm –   1        ”                            5   ”

38,0-cm –   2        ”                            8   “

A later Danish survey in 1946 came up with at least 79 batteries and well over 300 guns.

Several pieces were recycled Danish guns harvested from the country’s scuttled Navy.

On Fano Island, a battery of four guns, recovered from the lost Danish bathtub battleship Peder Skram, made up one battery, while another four 5.9-inch guns came from the battleship Gneisenau. A third battery was made up of French guns.

French cannon on Fano FHM-210127

Gneisenau’s 5.9-inch guns, set up on Fano Denmark FHM-210106

Gun from Peder Skram on Fano. FHM-210103

Among the more modern German pieces, the 7.5 cm Pak 40 was popular. Others included 76.2mm and 122mm Russian field artillery captured along the Eastern Front.

7.5 cm Pak 40M on Kattegat FHM-210360

There were also lots of very old (M1888) French 194mm pieces and Great War-era Schneider 105s– some 60 guns, reclassified as K 331(f)s in German service– and Creuzot 155s.

At Hanstholm, concrete fortifications up to 11 feet thick were constructed while the base mounted dozens of guns brought from occupied Poland and elsewhere, augmented by flamethrowers and over 30 assorted flak guns– many of the latter being British Vickers and French Hotchkiss.

Guns at Hanstholm FHM-209958

17cm gun at Hanstholm FHM-209981

Naval piece at Hanstholm FHM-210270

17 cm naval gun, Hanstholm, FHM-209953

The biggest, the eight pack of 38 cm (14.96″) SK C/34s, in two planned four-gun batteries at Oksby and Hanstholm, were Siegfried coastal artillery variants of the guns used on the Bismarck class battleships.

unmounted 38cm gun at Guldager near Esbjerg FHM-209862

38, cm gun, Hanstholm FHM-210072

38 cm kanon i Hanstholm FHM-209957

38 cm kanon i Hanstholm FHM-209964

38 cm kanon i Hanstholm FHM-210027

Gratefully, other than the occasional flak burst at passing Allied aircraft, none roared in anger during their time in Denmark.

German soldiers surrender their rifles at Kruså, Denmark – 17 May 1945. Norris (Sergeant) Photographer. IWM BU 6345

For a time, the Danes manned (or planned to man with reservists in case of war) some of the more modern batteries into the early 1950s, when even the last few were retired, seen as obsolete in an age of guided missiles and nuclear weapons. The bunkers often remained in use for other purposes until the end of the Cold War.

The majority of the guns were long ago scrapped, although a few have been retained as museum pieces.

M270 bunker med 150mm Bofors kanon fra Niels Juel at Bangsbo battery, Frederikshavn, by Carsten Wiehe via Wikimedia

The King of the Sea (Whiz)

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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.

National Archives Catalog #: KN-21546

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.

“Phalanx” Close-In Weapon System shown ready for tests at Pomona, California. This automatic cruise missile defense weapon features the “Vulcan” 20mm gun, with a “Phalanx” fire control system and search and track radars. KN-20570

“Phalanx” Close-in Weapon System (Vulcan 20mm Gun) aboard USS King (DLG-13) for tests. Catalog #: K-102265

“Phalanx” Close-in Weapon System (Vulcan 20mm Gun) aboard USS King (DLG-13) for tests. Catalog #: K-102266

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.

“Phalanx” Close-in Weapon System defeats a “Walleye” anti-ship weapon during recent realistic shipboard tests. Photo received July 1975. USN 1163564

Same as the above USN 1163569

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.

USS Bigelow (DD-942) circa 1977 in the Mayport operating area showing her Vulcan Phalanx CIWS mounted forward of her aft turret.

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.

A port view of the guided missile destroyer USS King (DDG-41) underway 6 May 1987. Photo by PH2 Clements DN-SC-88-06244.

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