Timmy C wrote:
carr wrote:
Regardless, the concept of using CIWS in a C-RAM role is interesting. I've never heard of it being done but it sounds plausible.
Pretty sure you have, just not at sea:
Just to remind everyone: C-RAM is about destroying incoming Rockets and Mortars (thin skinned targets) not necessarily artillery shells (to include naval artillery). Artillery shells, particularly guns, have much thicker casings to enable the shell to withstand rifling and tremendous g-force loads generated by the tube.
The theory is certainly there; but remember that rockets and mortars are very much thinner skinned and, in the case of mortars, much slower in velocity.
In any case, the systems in question were not anywhere near 100% effective, and this was in a role where they were countering only one or two tubes, with perhaps one-two dozen shells per launcher.
How well current systems would handle a battery of 6 tubes firing up to 30-rpm-per gun (doable with any 6-8cm mortar for brief periods) is anyone's guess.
I think this is the reason that the Germans (Rheinmetal) are pushing the 35mm milllennium gun deployed in 4-gun batteries, and why the Israelis are pushing their rocket based Iron Dome system.
In any case, C-RAM is only part of the defense grid. The real answer to rockets and mortars is to kill the enemy system before it fires, or to at least engage it with air or counter-battery fire as soon as the tubes/launchers are identified.