Close-In Weapons Systems (CIWS) are effectively the ‘last line of defence’ for naval vessels. CIWS have evolved in recent years as the immediate threats to ships have grown more complex, with new avenues of development in the domain for companies and navies alike.
These weapons are perhaps best known for providing protection against Anti-Ship Missiles (AShMs) and are usually based on a gun in the 20mm to 35mm range. However, there is considerable variety among CIWS, both in terms of the systems themselves and the threats they counter, and the line between them and some other gun systems can easily become blurred. For the US and its NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) allies, one of the best-known CIWSs is Raytheon’s Phalanx family. The Phalanx design has been in service since the 1980s, and is based around a 20mm radar-guided Gatling gun; with the latest iteration of the system known as the Phalanx Block-1B Baseline-2. The US Navy is currently upgrading all its Phalanx systems to this new baseline, with the project set for completion at some point in 2019, said Rick McDonnell, director of close-in defence solutions at Raytheon’s missile systems subsidiary. The major change in the latest upgrade has been a series of performance enhancements to the gun’s radar system, he said. This has worked on a number of levels, including upgrades to the radar signal processing architecture, Mr. McDonnell explained, though he could not go into further detail.
This story is from the October 2017 edition of Armada International.
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This story is from the October 2017 edition of Armada International.
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