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Army eyes Raytheon's high-tech, seagoing Gatling gun
By David Wichner
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
The U.S. Army is looking at a Raytheon-made ship-defense system to shoot down mortar rounds that are fired at U.S. troops in Iraq.
The Army is studying Raytheon's Phalanx B1 Close-In Weapon System - a radar-guided, ship-mounted version of a multibarreled Gatling gun - among several technologies to counter mortar and small-rocket threats, the company and the Army said.
The program is called C-RAM, short for "counter rocket artillery mortar" system.
The Phalanx is made by Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems in Louisville, Ky.
The Army has received two of the latest Phalanx B1 systems for evaluation under a Navy contract signed in March, said John Eagles, spokesman for Raytheon Missile Systems in Louisville, which employs about 350.
A "last line of defense" for ships, the Phalanx is a rapid-fire, computer-controlled radar and 20-millimeter gun system that can automatically track and destroy close-range enemy threats such as low-flying cruise missiles, small boats and helicopters. Since 1979, more than 850 Phalanx systems have been built and deployed in the navies of 22 allied nations, Raytheon says.
Firing 3,000 to 4,500 armor-piercing rounds per minute, the Phalanx was battle-tested by the British during the Falklands War. The advanced Phalanx 1B version includes advanced Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) and beefier gun barrels.
"The capability is there; the capability has been proven," Eagles said.
"The Army knows that the second-most-lethal threat they've got over there is mortars," he said, citing improvised bombs as the top threat.
Mortars are short-barreled, portable artillery weapons used to lob shells at targets within a few miles. They can be set up, fired and packed up in a matter of minutes, making it difficult for defenders to target mortar teams.
Harvey Perritt, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Monroe, Va., confirmed that the Army is researching ways to counter the mortar threat and that Raytheon is one of the contractors involved.
Perritt declined to give any further details of the project.
A military analyst said the Army is considering the Phalanx along with other countermeasures, including adapted anti-aircraft guns and rockets that detonate in the path of incoming projectiles, spewing out a pattern of shrapnel to increase the likelihood of a hit.
"The (insurgent) mortar teams are a problem, and they are looking at a number of different approaches to the problem," said John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org.
"The enemy mortar teams know the U.S. snipers can't get out more than a mile or so" to shoot them, Pike added.
Pike said the Phalanx is a well-regarded ship-defense weapon, though it's seen little combat action with the U.S. Navy.
One possible drawback of using the Phalanx system, Pike said, is the danger its rapid-fire hail of projectiles poses to U.S. troops and civilians.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., is seeking to earmark $75 million in fiscal 2006 funding to develop and field a C-RAM system, said Joe Kasper, Hunter's press secretary.
http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/allheadlines/75851.php
By David Wichner
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
The U.S. Army is looking at a Raytheon-made ship-defense system to shoot down mortar rounds that are fired at U.S. troops in Iraq.
The Army is studying Raytheon's Phalanx B1 Close-In Weapon System - a radar-guided, ship-mounted version of a multibarreled Gatling gun - among several technologies to counter mortar and small-rocket threats, the company and the Army said.
The program is called C-RAM, short for "counter rocket artillery mortar" system.
The Phalanx is made by Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems in Louisville, Ky.
The Army has received two of the latest Phalanx B1 systems for evaluation under a Navy contract signed in March, said John Eagles, spokesman for Raytheon Missile Systems in Louisville, which employs about 350.
A "last line of defense" for ships, the Phalanx is a rapid-fire, computer-controlled radar and 20-millimeter gun system that can automatically track and destroy close-range enemy threats such as low-flying cruise missiles, small boats and helicopters. Since 1979, more than 850 Phalanx systems have been built and deployed in the navies of 22 allied nations, Raytheon says.
Firing 3,000 to 4,500 armor-piercing rounds per minute, the Phalanx was battle-tested by the British during the Falklands War. The advanced Phalanx 1B version includes advanced Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) and beefier gun barrels.
"The capability is there; the capability has been proven," Eagles said.
"The Army knows that the second-most-lethal threat they've got over there is mortars," he said, citing improvised bombs as the top threat.
Mortars are short-barreled, portable artillery weapons used to lob shells at targets within a few miles. They can be set up, fired and packed up in a matter of minutes, making it difficult for defenders to target mortar teams.
Harvey Perritt, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Monroe, Va., confirmed that the Army is researching ways to counter the mortar threat and that Raytheon is one of the contractors involved.
Perritt declined to give any further details of the project.
A military analyst said the Army is considering the Phalanx along with other countermeasures, including adapted anti-aircraft guns and rockets that detonate in the path of incoming projectiles, spewing out a pattern of shrapnel to increase the likelihood of a hit.
"The (insurgent) mortar teams are a problem, and they are looking at a number of different approaches to the problem," said John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org.
"The enemy mortar teams know the U.S. snipers can't get out more than a mile or so" to shoot them, Pike added.
Pike said the Phalanx is a well-regarded ship-defense weapon, though it's seen little combat action with the U.S. Navy.
One possible drawback of using the Phalanx system, Pike said, is the danger its rapid-fire hail of projectiles poses to U.S. troops and civilians.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., is seeking to earmark $75 million in fiscal 2006 funding to develop and field a C-RAM system, said Joe Kasper, Hunter's press secretary.
http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/allheadlines/75851.php