The discussion of anti-ship missiles is closely related to the discussion of the capabilities of naval air defense systems. And every time, in this place heated disputes break out between the adherents of various systems of counteraction. Indeed, which is better: anti-aircraft guns, anti-missiles, or maybe it is worth hiding behind thick armor?
With regard to self-defense anti-aircraft artillery systems, there is a widespread misconception that they are not good for anything, tk. their effective range of fire usually does not exceed 4 kilometers. What is the 3-4 km distance for a transonic anti-ship missile? 10 seconds of flight! What can be done during this time? Nothing!
Misconception occurs due to ignorance of the algorithm for the operation of such systems. The radar of the anti-aircraft artillery complex takes the target for tracking, as soon as it appears over the radio horizon - and this is at least 20 - 30 kilometers! As you understand correctly, the computer brains of the anti-aircraft machine gun have a lot of time to accurately calculate the trajectory of the projectiles. Further, the self-defense anti-aircraft complex does not wait for the target to fly very close; As soon as the missile approaches a distance of 5-6 kilometers, the automatic anti-aircraft gun immediately opens fire - after a few seconds, the shells will meet the anti-ship missile at the borders of the affected area. For the next 10 seconds, the anti-aircraft missile will have to fly through a continuous swarm of automatic anti-aircraft guns.
Among the various self-defense systems, the name "Phalanx" is very common. Indeed, the American anti-aircraft artillery system is one of the most common in its class.
The official name of the system is Mk 15 Phalanx CIWS (English "Phalanx melee system"). The anti-aircraft artillery system is designed to protect ships from any anti-ship missiles, as well as from guided aerial bombs and guided ammunition. "Falanx" is capable of effectively hitting any air targets within a radius of several kilometers, and the depression angles of the gun allow, if necessary, to fire at surface targets. Serially produced since 1978, American sailors, for their external resemblance, nicknamed "Phalanx" R2D2, by analogy with the hero of the "Star Wars" saga - a silent robot that looks like a large cap.
Technically, "Falanx" is a 20-mm rapid-fire six-barreled cannon with a rotating block of barrels, mounted on a single gun carriage with two guidance radars (for target detection and tracking). Also, the "Phalanx" includes a rack with electronic units and a remote control. System weight - 6 tons.
Episodes
"Falanx" was repeatedly used in a real battle to repel missile attacks (at least he was obliged to do this), but, alas, unsuccessfully: by accidental coincidence, either the target was out of its range of action, or its own ship was on the firing line, or in general, the anti-aircraft machine gun was disabled. Twice this led to combat losses. And if the Israeli corvette Hanit got off relatively easily (the Chinese anti-ship missile Yingzi, fired by Hezbollah's militants, hit the helipad, killing 4 sailors), the US Navy frigate Stark received severe damage, killing 37 crew members.
Objectively, the Phalanx was not guilty there - the sailors ate their meals on the Hanit, turning off all means of detection, and the only bow Phalanx could not reach the rocket in the aft hemisphere. "Stark", on the contrary, (the law of meanness!) Was attacked from the course angles, and the only stern "Falanx" could get the "Exocets" only by piercing the frigate superstructure with fiery routes. The smart apparatus did not do this, and later it turned out that it was generally in a state of incapacity.
Much more vividly speak about the abilities of "Phalanx" three amusing cases, when he fired to kill. The first incident occurred on February 10, 1983, when the US Navy frigate Entrim attempted to shoot down an unmanned aerial target.
Return of the Terminator
… The Phalanx buzzes assiduously with servos, trying to catch a supersonic target in the crosshairs of an invisible radar sight. Short queue. Another one. The target is still heading for the ship. The Falanx panics and switches to continuous firing, spitting out 7 kilograms of death every second …
From a distance of half a mile, the automatic anti-aircraft gun managed to shred the drone, which buried itself in the waves, eliciting a sigh of relief from operators in the combat information center. That was the end of the story for the Phalanx, but for the frigate Entrim it had just begun.
The laws of drama came into effect: a flaming drone, riddled up and down, emerged from the sea foam and a second later painfully hit the frigate on the superstructure. Simply put, the debris of the target ricocheted off the water like a successfully thrown pebble, and set up a fire on the frigate. The only casualty was a civilian specialist who was hurt by a debris.
In principle, a good example of mast bombing.
Hit your
The next story is a banal "friendly fire". During the war with Iraq, the URO frigate Jerret was honored to defend the battleship Missouri.
On a dark winter night in 1991, the Missouri calmly piled up the Iraqi shores with its monstrous 406mm cannons. The Iraqis sent their cruel "hello" to the battleship - two Haiyin anti-ship missiles (a Chinese copy of the Soviet P-15 Termit with an increased firing range). The first missile was intercepted by a British destroyer, the second disappeared somewhere along the way (the battleship's electronic warfare means were activated). The frigate "Jerret" especially distinguished itself: the anti-aircraft gun "Falanx" installed on it was so carried away by the hunt for anti-ship missiles that he did not notice the battleship standing in the line of fire and refreshed the Missouri with a fiery shower.
Beat your own-2
The silly story happened on June 4, 1996. American sailors taught their Japanese colleagues how to use the Falanx. The task is to get from the anti-aircraft machine gun into the towed air cone. It was only necessary to load the gun and turn on the power in time - the smart machine will do the rest itself. But here, too, they managed to ruin everything.
The officer of the destroyer "Yugiri" pressed the button "Glory to the robots!" Too early. Kill all people! "," Phalanx "came to life and hummed joyfully, spinning the block of barrels.
The Japanese announced on the radio: "Banzai!"
The American pilots replied: … (however, let the reader guess for himself what the Americans answered, who had not yet managed to leave the danger zone by that time).
Deck attack aircraft A-6 "Intruder" was mercilessly cut in half, after which the "Falanx" lost interest in the towing vehicle and began to make holes in the target cone. It was this circumstance that gave the pilots a chance to miraculously eject. When the Phalanx's power was turned off, only two white spots of the parachute domes swayed among the waves …
System Assessment
Anti-aircraft artillery complex "Falanx" has many advantages: simple design, minimum weight and dimensions, low price … The system enjoys well-deserved popularity and is widespread throughout the world - "Phalanxes" are armed with naval ships of 23 states. But like any weapon, it's not perfect. Truth is best seen in comparison to anything. A direct analogue of the "Falanx" is the Soviet automatic shipborne installation AK-630. Let's try to draw some parallels between them. Firstly, there is an important technical feature at once - in the AK-630 the gunpowder gases rotate the block of barrels, while in the "Phalanx" it is done by a separate electric motor. "Falanx" cannot instantly open fire, like any cannon M61 "Vulcan", its gun takes 1.5 seconds to spin up the barrels.
The main disadvantages of the Phalanx are always called a small caliber (projectile weight of only 100 grams) and a relatively low rate of fire (adjustable within 3000-4500 rds / min). According to these parameters, the AK-630 breaks far ahead - the rate of fire of the domestic system is 5000 rds / min, and its high-explosive fragmentation projectile weighs 390 grams!
But not everything is so simple: the lower rate of fire of the American installation is compensated for by its greater firing accuracy: the Falanx's weapons and guidance systems are on a single gun carriage, at the same time the AK-630 and its Vympel radar are spaced apart. In addition, the AK-630 analog guidance drives require periodic careful calibration - a difficult process to carry out on combat ships in the realities of our Fatherland. This shortcoming was corrected in the next development of the Soviet military-industrial complex - the Kortik anti-aircraft missile-artillery complex, in which two barrel blocks, two launchers and guidance systems are combined in a single block.
The advantages of the AK-630 are excellent ballistic characteristics and greater ammunition power. The trump card of the American system is the Mk.149 sub-caliber projectile made of depleted uranium. High-speed ammunition, when it hits an anti-ship missile, causes a powerful release of thermal energy and instant detonation of the anti-ship missile warhead (this is exactly what is required from anti-aircraft self-defense systems, it is not enough to damage the missile - the debris will ricochet off the water and can damage the ship).
Due to its 1.5 times smaller caliber, "Falanx" emits 5 times less heat when firing. The length of a continuous burst of an American installation can reach 1000 shots, but this is not the main thing: less heat release made it possible to use an air cooling system for the barrels and reduce the weight of the installation. The speed of horizontal guidance of the light "Phalanx" reaches 115 degrees / sec (for the AK-630 this indicator is 70 degrees / sec), in the vertical plane the situation is similar - 115 degrees / sec. "American" against 50 degrees / sec of the Soviet "metal cutting".
For the sake of fairness, it should be noted: the shortcomings of the Soviet shipborne anti-aircraft system AK-630 were compensated by the fact that the AK-630 was installed on the ships of the USSR Navy in the form of a battery of two guns. You don't need to be a mathematician to calculate the total rate of fire of such a system - 10,000 rds / min!
Sometimes Falanx is criticized for being too open. For example, in the photographs, the absence of a shell for the projectile feed mechanism is immediately striking. In fact, it shouldn't be there. A particularly strong contrast is felt in comparison with the tightly sealed AK-630 - it seems that the Soviet anti-aircraft machine gun is completely sealed. The design of the Falanx, on the other hand, is extremely lightweight and open to the views of others - it's scary to think what will happen to the American system in the harsh conditions of the North Atlantic.
The Falanx will instantly freeze up and fail. However, the US Navy and its allies care little about this aspect - most of the world's population lives in temperate latitudes. New York is located on the same latitude as the resort of Sochi. And this is considered the North of the United States? From the southernmost point of America 90 miles to Cuba. The gentle Mediterranean Sea, the hot air of the Persian Gulf, the tropical islands of the Indian Ocean … only crazy Russians climbed to the very north of the Eurasian continent, where perennial pack ice covers the coast of the Arctic Ocean more reliably than any Coast Guard.
It becomes clear why Phalanx has such a strange design or, for example, why American aircraft carriers do not have the problem of icing catapults - there is simply no need for US Navy ships to operate in the Arctic latitudes.
With regard to protection against combat damage, this issue was not even considered. To provide sane protection, at least from a rifle-caliber bullet, 8 millimeters of armor steel is required. A lightweight radio-transparent cap is the whole protection of the complex's equipment. Moreover, when it comes to combat damage in a modern naval battle, it means that things are bad and no one cares about the Phalanx.
Perspectives
"Falanx" is developing new areas of its application - the army ordered 43 units of ground modification of the complex to protect American bases abroad. The ground-based Phalanx received the designation "Centurion" C-RAM (counter-rocket, artillery, mortar) - this abbreviation fully explains the purpose of the complex - to protect the base from operational tactical missiles, mortar attacks and large-caliber artillery shells. The rate of fire of the C-RAM has been reduced to 2000 rds / min. Unlike the naval "Phalanx", this modification uses the M940 HEIT-SD ammunition-fragmentation projectiles - this is done, first of all, to increase safety - in the event of a miss, a naval projectile with a uranium core will fly into the void and burrow into the waves, the land-based projectile must be sure to be equipped with a self-liquidator. The complex is capable of covering an area of 1, 2 sq. kilometers. In Iraq, the Centurions are reported to have successfully repelled 105 mortar attacks on American positions.
In the fleet, "Falanx" is gradually losing its positions - instead of artillery, missile systems come, such as the SeaRAM - a launcher on the carriage of the "Falanx", but instead of a cannon, an 11-round launcher for anti-missile laser and IR-guided missiles is installed. Many Orly Burke-class destroyers and the latest San Antonio-class amphibious assault ships entered service without the noticeable white caps of the Falanxes.
Of course, "Falanx" is not the best of the galaxy of self-defense marine complexes, although it has an advantage in terms of cost - efficiency. From the point of view of paper performance characteristics, the anti-aircraft artillery complex "Goalkeeper" (produced in the Netherlands-USA) looks much more solid. No less attention is drawn to the newest Millennium anti-aircraft machine gun of the Swiss company Oerlikon - a 35-mm cannon with programmable projectiles, each of which contains 152 striking elements. Despite the low rate of fire - less than 1000 rds / min, this design solution creates a simply terrifying wall of fire. And what a savings in ammunition!
