Phalanx Gun System ??

billt460

billt460

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Lake Havasu City, Arizona
Does anyone know what is housed inside that giant dome on a Phalanx Gun System? I know the thing will track and shoot incoming threats, but that thing is huge.

At the bottom there is another drum that looks to house the ammunition. You can see the belt guide, along with what appears to be a round showing near the top of the box.... Lots of footrests and grab rails as well.

1691489775549.png
 
billt460 said:
Does anyone know what is housed inside that giant dome on a Phalanx Gun System? I know the thing will track and shoot incoming threats, but that thing is huge.

At the bottom there is another drum that looks to house the ammunition. You can see the belt guide, along with what appears to be a round showing near the top of the box.... Lots of footrests and grab rails as well.

View attachment 171496
Click to expand...

Radar subsystems​

The CIWS has two antennas that work together to engage targets. The first antenna, for searching, is located inside the radome on the weapon control group (top of the white-painted portion). The search subsystem provides bearing, range, velocity, heading, and altitude information of potential targets to the CIWS computer. This information is analyzed to determine whether the detected object should be engaged by the CIWS system. Once the computer identifies a valid target, the mount moves to face the target and then hands the target over to the tracking antenna at around 8 km. The track antenna is extremely precise, but views a much smaller area. The tracking subsystem observes the target until the computer determines that the probability of a successful hit is maximized and then, depending on the operator conditions, the system either fires automatically at around 2 km or recommends fire to the operator. While firing 75 rounds per second, the system tracks outgoing rounds and 'walks' them onto the target.
 
That makes sense, seeing as there are no screws, handrails, or rivets attached to the top portion of it. It is more than likely made from some non metallic material so as not to impede the radar.

The only problem I see with it is that it's much too tall to fit in my garage..... That, along with the fact I'm sure the ammo is, "out of stock".
 
Astro14 said:
Standard 20mm ammo. Same as the M61 used in fighter aircraft. Electrically primed.

But I don’t think Midway USA carrys it…
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There actually was a guy in Glendale when I was living there who had 20 MM in stock. The place was called United Nations Ammo, and he went out of business a few years back when the whole powder and ammo shortage started.

I bought a lot of .50 BMG from him. Even armor piercing incendiary. And the stuff was fairly cheap. He had .50 BMG Ball for $2.25 a round if you bought 100 or more. A lot of .50 shooters bought from him.

You had to have a Destructive Device License to purchase the 20 MM. However he had a lot of demilled stuff for sale. Some were made into cigarette lighters, table decorations, and other such novelties. He supplied a lot of shooters that went to the Big Sandy Machine Gun Shoot every year.
 
billt460 said:
Does anyone know what is housed inside that giant dome on a Phalanx Gun System? I know the thing will track and shoot incoming threats, but that thing is huge.

At the bottom there is another drum that looks to house the ammunition. You can see the belt guide, along with what appears to be a round showing near the top of the box.... Lots of footrests and grab rails as well.

View attachment 171496
Click to expand...
The top is a search antenna and the track antenna is directly above the gun. That is the ammo drum below, it holds 1550 rounds and has to stay full of either dummy rounds (pictured) or live rounds so that the mount remains balanced. As you feed the live rounds in, the dummy rounds will exit, all done on the front of the drum where that thin metal cover is. There is a loader attachment that hooks to the front and you can set it up to load either links or rounds.
The one you pictured has surface capability, that is a thermal sight on the left side, it also has the barrel stabilizers on the front.
They are maintenance intensive and are only as reliable as the technicians level of proficiency.
 
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thastinger said:
The top is a search antenna and the track antenna is directly above the gun. That is the ammo drum below, it holds 1550 rounds and has to stay full of either dummy rounds (pictured) or live rounds so that the mount remains balanced. As you feed the live rounds in, the dummy rounds will exit, all done on the front of the drum where that thin metal cover is. There is a loader attachment that hooks to the front and you can set it up to load either links or rounds.
The one you pictured has surface capability, that is a thermal sight on the left side, it also has the barrel stabilizers on the front.
They are maintenance intensive and are only as reliable as the technicians level of proficiency.
Click to expand...
In an "All Hands On Deck" situation, about how long does it take to reload one?

That thing looks like the perfect weapon for Somali pirates. I believe the Russians have something similar they used against them. Like shooting fish in a barrel.
 
billt460 said:
In an "All Hands On Deck" situation, about how long does it take to reload one?

That thing looks like the perfect weapon for Somali pirates. I believe the Russians have something similar they used against them. Like shooting fish in a barrel.
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The standard we used to be graded to was 8 minutes, a good team could do it in a little under 5 but you are limited to the reload speed of the ammo system, you can't make it run faster than it is set to run for reloading....which is a fraction of the normal operation speed. You also have to hump the 15 cans of live rounds from the magazine to the gun and that distance varies from ship to ship, some are right by the mount and some are 150ft away. Each ammo can holds 100 rounds.
 
thastinger said:
They don't use DU anymore, not for CIWS anyway. They are all Tungsten now.
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When I saw the Phalanx gun (Popular Science?), the said it was spent plutonium. They said it could knock out an enemy missel.
Same thing as DU?

My dream tool for tailgaters or oncoming vehicles with brights on is a compressed C02 launching system for old bowling balls. (kidding)
 
Kira said:
When I saw the Phalanx gun (Popular Science?), the said it was spent plutonium. They said it could knock out an enemy missel.
Same thing as DU?

My dream tool for tailgaters or oncoming vehicles with brights on is a compressed C02 launching system for old bowling balls. (kidding)
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Yeah, the projectiles were depleted Uranium up until the middle to late 90s when they were replaced by Tungsten. You can tell the difference in the color of the plastic sabots, if the sabot is orange then the projectile inside is DU, if the sabot is black it is Tungsten.
The Army used the same gun and had some rounds that would self destruct after they traveled 1500 yards, in order to prevent collateral damage, but the Navy doesn't use those, they are all Tungsten now.
 
Kira said:
When I saw the Phalanx gun (Popular Science?), the said it was spent plutonium. They said it could knock out an enemy missel.
Same thing as DU?

My dream tool for tailgaters or oncoming vehicles with brights on is a compressed C02 launching system for old bowling balls. (kidding)
Click to expand...
No such thing as “spent plutonium”. PU-239 is the only isotope in common use and it’s highly radioactive. Used in nuclear weapons and in nuclear reactors, including RTGs for space probes.

Depleted Uranium is U-238, the stable isotope, with the U-235 removed. U-235 is the more radioactive, and is used in nuclear weapons. Uranium is very dense, nearly twice the density of lead, so, it made a good projectile, but Tungsten is even slightly more dense than Uranium.
 
JohnnyG said:
Not exactly standard. Depleted uranium core, armor piercing. Designed to take out missiles and such.
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Point is, it is an M-61 gun. Same ammo, though projectiles vary. We carried API, HEI, and ball rounds, depending on the mission. No need for Tungsten or other rounds, in the airplanes, but the ammo is all compatible, just like there are a variety of .44 mag projectiles and all .44 mags can shoot all of them.

The weapon in question is a 20mm M-61.

The rest of the mount is sensors and aiming.
 
billt460 said:
Astro, were you ever able to see it being tested when you were at sea?
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Yeah, it’s really impressive, it’ll keep shooting until the target is destroyed, and sometimes, it doesn’t realize the target is destroyed, so it keeps shooting the pieces of debris.

Nobody was allowed on deck when they fired (carriers have three mounts), so, it was on closed circuit, but yiu could feel the vibration from the firing.

Rate of fire is lower than we used (IIRC Phalanx is 4,000 RPM, we used 6,000) so, it sounded different than our M-61.

They scared me a bit. There were incidences of CIWS in exercises locking onto the tow aircraft instead of the target banner 1,500 feet behind. That never worked out well for the pilot.

A fully autonomous gun, designed to kill things that fly, operated by surface warfare people, and they were attached to our one runway.

I tried not to think about that much…
 
Astro14 said:
Yeah, it’s really impressive, it’ll keep shooting until the target is destroyed, and sometimes, it doesn’t realize the target is destroyed, so it keeps shooting the pieces of debris.

Nobody was allowed on deck when they fired (carriers have three mounts), so, it was on closed circuit, but yiu could feel the vibration from the firing.

Rate of fire is lower than we used (IIRC Phalanx is 4,000 RPM, we used 6,000) so, it sounded different than our M-61.

They scared me a bit. There were incidences of CIWS in exercises locking onto the tow aircraft instead of the target banner 1,500 feet behind. That never worked out well for the pilot.

A fully autonomous gun, designed to kill things that fly, operated by surface warfare people, and they were attached to our one runway.

I tried not to think about that much…
Click to expand...
The hydraulic driven mounts of your Desert Storm Era were 3k/min fire rate, the pneumatic variations(still used today) are 4500/min.
The Japanese Navy is the only Navy to ever shoot the tow aircraft(1996).
There are 2 modes of operation, AAW Auto and AAW Manual. The US Navy conducts all tow live fire events in AAW Manual (operator must acknowledge the "recommend fire" and you don't enter the AAW Manual mode of operation until the tow aircraft calls "mark on top"...but even with that, I've had the gun shoot up the tow line after the tow target had been knocked off the end of the tow line.
 
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Kira said:
In the video it looks like they miss a lot. Is ours more efficient?
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There's doesn't appear to have the level of electronics ours does. It seems to be more of a manual operation.

It looks like they're "walking it" into the target. But they did connect with the first burst. Fire with a lot of black smoke.
 
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