During naval exercises, they land troops, search for submarines and sometimes shoot at targets in the form of anchored barges with container barricades lined up on the deck. (Why? To facilitate missile guidance and report success “up”.) If the opportunity arises, decommissioned ships are bombed and shot.
The variant with the interception of air targets is being worked out much less often. The next radio-controlled "blank" (usually subsonic) is launched, at which the ship's air defense systems fire. If long-range missiles are available and the characteristics of the radars allow, an attempt can be made to intercept the ballistic missile warhead. Hit a flying bullet with a bullet. Into the night meteorite sparkling high in the sky. Somewhere off to the side, hundreds of miles from the ship.
But practically no one has ever fired at air targets equipped with an active targeting system. In that tragic and dangerous moment, when the simulator of a combat missile was heading towards the SHIP FIRING AT IT.
The exercise leaders know how dangerous such experiments are. That the capabilities of even the best layered air defense are described by the fraction 0, 9 …, and most ships are generally defenseless against such a threat. Too little time and the cost of making a mistake.
Happy starts, or what if we are banging?
There are not so many fools and suicides in command positions. And the number of those available, fortunately, does not reach the critical mass required to start a catastrophe.
Nevertheless, in the course of the combat training of the fleets of the leading countries of the world, sometimes and very rarely, situations arose similar to the "fun starts" described above. Those who gave orders are difficult to suspect of evil intentions. Most likely, there was an overestimation of the capabilities of new defensive systems or a tragic (albeit statistically predictable) coincidence of circumstances.
Certain safety measures have been taken to prevent possible consequences. A missile self-destruct system was installed, which turned off the seeker or undermined the simulator in case of a dangerous approach to the attacked ship.
Attack schemes have been developed, in which the target, in the event of an unsuccessful interception, had to miss the course with the attacked ship (although, in this case, you will not understand which of them is the target).
The calculations of the naval air defense missile systems are brought to full combat readiness and notified about the probable direction and moment of the start of the attack.
The exact statistics of the exercises are kept classified, but certain conclusions can be drawn from the information leaked to the media. Despite its rarity, such "exercises" ended in emergency three times, and once - in disaster.
Frigate Entrim Incident
February 10, 1983, Atlantic Ocean. The frigate USS Antrim (FFG-20) attempted to intercept a radio-controlled target by shooting it from the newest and “unparalleled” self-defense complex “Falanx”.
A few words about the Phalanx: a six-barreled automatic cannon and a radar guidance system mounted on a single movable gun carriage. When compared with the domestic counterpart, the AK-630 metal-cutter, Internet experts traditionally underestimate the Falanx, hinting at the low power of 20-mm shells in comparison with the 30-mm AK-630 caliber. And in vain. A monoblock made of a cannon and a radar has a lower firing error than the AK-630 cannon turret and its Vympel control radar installed separately (often ten meters from each other). Also, due to their compactness of the entire system, Falanx's servo drives provide a high speed of rotation of the barrel unit (115 deg / s in any plane versus 75 deg / s in the AK-630).
Power is also not easy: this "naval R2D2" fires specially designed MK.149 projectiles with a tungsten core. Due to the absence of strict restrictions on weight and dimensions and requirements for transportation, ship guns are always more powerful than aviation and land analogues. The initial velocity of the Phalanx projectiles is over a kilometer per second. When hitting anti-ship missiles, high-speed, dense and extremely durable MK.149 ammunition should cause a release of thermal energy and instant detonation of the missile warhead.
Those who talk about the weakness of "Phalanx CIWS" have never fired themselves, even with a "small". If we recall the stories of veterans about how the DShK machine gun smashes brickwork, it is easy to imagine how a six-barreled monster of twice the caliber “hollows”.
In 1996, during the RIMPAC-96 exercise, such a gun in a split second cut in half the Intruder attack aircraft, which accidentally flew into the Falanx's affected area.
Why am I praising this Phalanx here? To curb debate about the ineffectiveness of the American defense system that could have caused the events described below.
However, the reason was not at all the capabilities of anti-aircraft weapons.
On that day, the air defense worked perfectly. According to eyewitnesses, the anti-aircraft gun “shredded” the drone into separate fragments, which fell into the water five hundred meters from the frigate. The target was hit and completely destroyed.
But they did not have time to celebrate the victory. As if according to the plot of a film about the terminator, the burnt pieces of the drone ricocheted off the water and in a second they JUMPED INTO THE FRIGATE SUPERSTRUCTURE. The spilled fuel caused a fire in the computer compartment, one sailor was the victim of the incident.
Despite the absence of a warhead and the diminutiveness of the drone itself (starting weight - 250 kg), the frigate was disabled.
It is not hard to imagine what will become of any modern frigate when meeting with a flock of "Onyxes" and "Calibers". Even if he manages to intercept them all, the debris of the downed missiles is guaranteed to cripple the ship.
In support of this, there is the following short story.
In the summer of 1990, the Americans conducted a funny and instructive experiment. On board the decommissioned destroyer Stoddard (WWII), numerous sensors, video cameras and a new model Falanx were installed. The destroyer abandoned by the crew was turned into a kind of floating fort, which was to repel attacks from all directions. There were no volunteer suicides among the sailors, so all the firing was carried out in a fully automatic mode.
According to the Yankees themselves, during the tests they managed to intercept the entire range of missiles - from the primitive BQM-74 to the supersonic Vandals. However, the performance of "Falanx" still turned out to be below 100%. The wreckage of the missiles reached the destroyer. And one unfinished drone hit the superstructure area, and, according to eyewitnesses, cut the diesel generator installed there in half. As I said, the efficiency was below 100%.
The death of "Monsoon"
This famous story happened on April 16, 1987, 33 miles from Askold Island. A detachment of small missile ships of the Pacific Fleet practiced joint firing of air defense systems. Having found a missile coming at it, the "Monsoon" MCR fired a two-missile salvo at it by the "Osa-M" sea anti-aircraft system. Both missiles exploded near the target, damaging the anti-ship missile with a barrage of debris and shock wave energy. However, by a tragic coincidence, the RM-15M Termit-R training target missile continued its flight and crashed into the superstructure of the attacked ship. The resulting fire completely de-energized the MRK and created a threat of detonation of the ammunition on board. The approaching ships also did not dare to approach the dying "Monsoon". As a result of the tragedy, 39 of the 76 sailors on board were killed.
Within the framework of this article, it is not the task of finding the culprit among the command and a complete analysis of the actions of the crew members of the deceased MRK. The above case with "Monsoon" is another example of the fact that the downed missile continues to pose a threat to the ship and everyone on board.
The sailors have known about this threat since the Second World War. Faced with kamikaze attacks, the Americans quickly found out that even the powerful and automated 40 mm Bofors were not able to effectively protect the ship in such a situation. The burning plane with the dead pilot continued its mournful journey to the goal. It is no coincidence that in the first post-war years, the Yankees began to arm ships with 76 mm anti-aircraft guns.
In general, the described situation looks unambiguous:
1) knocking down, igniting and shredding a rocket into pieces doesn't mean anything. The debris will ricochet off the water and simply continue on its way to the target. Moreover, these fragments bear little resemblance to the fragments of a broken cup. These are pieces of aluminum and plastic weighing a good dumbbell. That move at the speed of a bullet. And at the same time, they may contain flammable and explosive substances in dangerous quantities;
2) to shoot down anti-ship missiles at distant lines is a good proposal, but not real. Given that the Earth is round, and modern PURs fly low above the water, they are detected at the last minute, at distances of 10-20 miles from the ship. Where all the hope is only for melee weapons. Which can not do anything: the kinetic energy of transonic objects with a mass about a passenger car is too high;
3) what to do with all this is absolutely incomprehensible. Putting five Phalanxes and an AK-630 on each ship will not solve the problem (see items 1 and 2).
