The CIWS Discussion

[Ex-Dragoon]

SeaRam....that will teach me from texting all day.

Edit: Datsheet
http://www.raytheon.com/capabilities/rtnwcm/groups/rms/documents/content/rtn_rms_ps_searam_datasheet.pdf

 

[Nfld Sapper]

SeaRam....that will teach me from texting all day.

:clubinhand:

;D

 

[Galahad]

Ah yes, I thats what I thought you meant. The rolling airframe missile does look pretty neat, do you have any experience with it?

 

[Nfld Sapper]

Looks like a Phalanx mated to a missle battery.

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

Only from talking with sailors from the USN. They like it and swear by it, my hesitation for it would be less rounds then a 20 mm.

Looks like a Phalanx mated to a missle battery.

In a nutshell thats all it is.

 

[Nfld Sapper]

Only from talking with sailors from the USN. They like it and swear by it, my hesitation for it would be less rounds then a 20 mm.
In a nutshell thats all it is.

yeah 11 missles a wee bit lite IMHO

 

[Galahad]

Only from talking with sailors from the USN. They like it and swear by it, my hesitation for it would be less rounds then a 20 mm.

That is a concern, I believe that in this configuration, it only contains 11 missiles. That being said, you have to wonder how many targets the regular Phalanx can engage before it needs reloading. With 1500 rounds, and at a rate of 75 rounds per second, that is only 20 seconds of continuous fire, so you have to wonder how many missiles could you shoot down in 20 seconds?

Also, I believe the Burke's carry two Phalanx's, so in theory one could have the regular 20mm cannon, and the other could have the SeaRam. Although, there may or may not be an advantage to doing so, which would depend on operational requirements I suppose.

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

The RAM Block 0 has a 21 round launcher, which is what you will find on some USN ships.

That is a concern, I believe that in this configuration, it only contains 11 missiles. That being said, you have to wonder how many targets the regular Phalanx can engage before it needs reloading. With 1500 rounds, and at a rate of 75 rounds per second, that is only 20 seconds of continuous fire, so you have to wonder how many missiles could you shoot down in 20 seconds?

That I would say is the billion dollar question....

 

[Nfld Sapper]

now do they carry extras to reload after or do they have to put in to be reloaded?

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

now do they carry extras to reload after or do they have to put in to be reloaded?

Well the missile is about 9 ft long I would hazard a guess and say no, that never came up.

 

[Galahad]

As much as I hate to cite wikipedia, it does have a picture of some US sailors reloading the RAM launcher on a US aircraft carrier. So it could be possible, maybe not very feasible though.

SeaRam Reload

 

[Nfld Sapper]

doh, didn't think about that part.

 

[Nfld Sapper]

As much as I hate to cite wikipedia, it does have a picture of some US sailors reloading the RAM launcher on a US aircraft carrier.

Well a carrier has much more room to store stuff versus a say a destroyer/frigate.

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

As much as I hate to cite wikipedia, it does have a picture of some US sailors reloading the RAM launcher on a US aircraft carrier. So it could be possible, maybe not very feasible though.

SeaRam Reload

Actually the caption has them downloading the RAM, so maybe on larger ships then it is possible.

 

[Nfld Sapper]

Actually the caption has them downloading the RAM, so maybe on larger ships then it is possible.

Wouldn't want to try it in any sea state weather.

 

[Galahad]

That makes sense, maybe on an aircraft carrier it is possible, but I would think that on a frigate/destroyer, it would be a lot harder to store 9 ft long missiles than boxes of 20mm ammo. In addition to the fact that it would be much harder to handle them, especially in any type of sea state, as you mentioned

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

Metal Storm has been talked about as well for CIWS, so in the future it might be a contender.

http://www.metalstorm.com/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,79/

 

[Galahad]

That would be quite interesting, to say the least. As long as we are talking about possible future applications, I would like to see a miniaturized laser weapon similar to the Airborne Laser System, now that would be something.

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

That would be quite interesting, to say the least. As long as we are talking about possible future applications, I would like to see a miniaturized laser weapon similar to the Airborne Laser System, now that would be something.

But how would it fair in an ocean enviroment with all those delicate electronics?

 

[Nfld Sapper]

That would be quite interesting, to say the least. As long as we are talking about possible future applications, I would like to see a miniaturized laser weapon similar to the Airborne Laser System, now that would be something.

But how would it fair in an ocean enviroment with all those delicate electronics?

And it would have to have some sort of stabilization too.