Tag Archives: Phalanx

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.

CIWS gets updated

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Defense contractor Raytheon is testing a modified version of their Phalanx Close-In Weapon System that will let soldiers and sailors fire at varying rates, using less ammunition.

Designed in the 1970s and with some 890 mounts currently in circulation the CIWS (“sea whiz”) couples an M61A1 20 mm Gatling gun capable of firing 4,500 rounds per minute with onboard target acquisition and fire control in one unit. While the system has been continually updated, it remains hamstrung by the fact that it only holds about 20 seconds worth of ammunition on the mount and reloading, as any Gunners Mate will tell you, is not done in a snap.

Raytheon, however, announced last week that an upgrade now underway can allow users to select different rates of fire while also increasing reliability and lowering maintenance. Also, due to the fact the upgrade replaces a pneumatic motor, compressor and storage tanks, it trims the mount’s weight by 180 pounds.

Just when you thought the CIWS was Exocet-only

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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)

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.

dagger of san carlos

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