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classify and track in the shortest possible
time, Mr. McLoughlin said: “and I think
that that’s where phased array technology
is taking us now.” The company is inves-
tigating phased array radar systems that
could be combined with the Millennium
Gun, with significant benefits envisaged
in both the management of engagements
in the multi-threat environment and in re-
ducing the reaction times of the weapon’s
fire control system. Rheinmetall is work-
ing with a number of suppliers on these
efforts, and one potential customer exists,
though Mr. McLoughlin said the project
was still in its early stages.
Put simply, phased array radar takes
a Radio Frequency (RF) transmission and
feeds it to individual transmit modules
mounted across a radar’s antenna. The
single RF transmission is now split into
several individual transmissions from
each of the transmit modules allowing
the beam to be electronically steered by
using a process known as phase shifting
(changing the phase of a wave, the phase
being the cycle of a sine wave perform-
ing one full oscillation) enabling a radar
to be electronically steered rather than
necessarily having to physically move the
radar’s antenna. Thus time is saved by
being able to electronically move an an-
tenna’s field-of-view as opposed to physi-
cally having to move the radar antenna.
Mr. McLoughlin also pointed to efforts
to reduce the time between detection and
tracking with the weapons’ fire control ra-
dar, in order to reduce overall system reac-
tion time: “Especially when we talk about
anti-ship missiles now, where supersonic
weapons are prevalent and hypersonic
(speeds of Mach Five and above) is com-
ing, reaction times are critical ... I think
those areas of system intelligence and reac-
tion time have to improve, and that’s what
we’re working on,” he said.
Rheinmetall is known as an ammuni-
tion manufacturer, and this was an im-
portant area of consideration for CIWS,
Mr. McLoughlin said. Airbursting ammu-
nition, such as the company’s AHEAD
35mm product, was an option, offering a
huge number of sub-projectiles to give a
guaranteed hit. However, Mr. McLough-
lin said that sub-projectiles can become
very small within the boundaries of the
payload, so: “you’ve always got to find
that sweet spot” between the number of
sub-projectiles and their kill probability.
The company is currently working on
optimising the different sub-projectile
payloads inside AHEAD, he noted. It has
a variety of different sub-projectile sizes,
which could be used in a pre-mixed con-
figuration of larger and smaller sizes. The
advantage of using an airburst approach
was the ability to bring down targets at
greater distances using a smaller number
of rounds, Mr. McLoughlin concluded.
The Millennium Gun could fire air-
The Millennium Gun is designed for
use in multiple roles, including as a
CIWS. The launch customer was the
Royal Danish Navy, while it remains in
service with a number of other navies.
Rheinmetall