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SEA
POWERThe Phalanx has evolved over the decades, driven primarily by world events, such as the attack on
the USS Cole in Aden in 2000. The current iteration of the weapon is the Phalanx Block-1B Baseline-2.Raytheonburst rounds, he added, along with
more traditional high-explosive
rounds. The system is based on a re-
volver cannon, which has a tendency
to sway during firing, Mr. McLoughlin
said. The company developed a system
to regulate the rate of fire when the gun
was first designed, he explained. In the
first generation, this worked for ‘rapid
single shot’ fire at rates of 200 rounds-
per-minute (rpm). In the new system,
both rapid single shot and burst fire
(about 1000 rpm) will be fully regu-
lated. The latter has been fully proven
and is now in implementation: “Rather
than just pressing the trigger and let-
ting the gun work like an automatic
cannon, we’re actually regulating the
rate of fire even in (the weapons’) thou-
sand rpm mode,” he explained: “These
tiny little pauses actually give the sys-
tem time to settle down and for the dy-
namics to become predictable, and this
increases our accuracy.” Rheinmetall
has increased the modularity of the
system, making it more applicable for a
wider range of tasks. The company has
also almost completed development of a lighter weight version
of the weapon, which offers the same level of firepower: “We
can install this on smaller boats as a main gun, but also it can
be used in that close-in weapon system and self-defence role on
larger ships.”Laser Beams
Directed-energy weapons have grown as an area of focus for both
navies and the industry. For example, the US Navy’s AN/SEQ-3
Laser Weapon System (LAWS) has been tested on the USS Ponce,
‘Austin’ class amphibious assault ship, using the Phalanx’s radar
and fire control systems. Similarly, Raytheon is working with the
US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) on the
Multi Azimuth Defence Fast Intercept Round Engagement System
(MAD-FIRES), which focuses on technologies that would combine
the attributes of bullets, such as ammunition capacity and speed,
with those of missiles, such as guidance, accuracy and precision.
Both MAD-FIRES and lasers improve magazine depth or ef-
ficiency by either providing a rechargeable system, in the case
of lasers, or reducing the amount of rounds needed in a mission,
in the case of MAD-FIRES, said Mr. McDonnell. Still, he does
not see the more traditional approaches going out of fashion any
time soon. For the foreseeable future, there will be a lot of targets
that the navy would only want to confront using a Gatling gun,
he said.
Rheinmetall is also looking at the potential of directed en-
ergy, carrying out trials in which the Millennium Gun’s can-
non is replaced with lasers. This effort had been successful, Mr.
McLoughlin said. Additionally, the company has worked with
the Heer (German Navy) on developing a High-Energy Laser
(HEL) effector. This is still in the research and development
phase, with many trials conducted using numerous systems and
differing HEL energy levels. There are a number of attractions to
the directed energy approach, Mr. McLoughlin noted, most nota-
bly the fact that the magazine is essentially unlimited. It could be
a useful supplement when it came to dealing with swarming at-
tacks and other threats. However, laser sources can be expensive,
he said. Systems like lasers and soft-kill approaches have a num-
ber of uses, but there will always be a place for hard-kill systems:
“You can’t replace one with the other; you probably need to have
the capabilities for both.”AMRTransmissions for Tanks
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