Quote:
|
Rumors abound that the Phalanx is too short ranged to handle the Sunburn.
|
It's not just a rumor, it's simple physics: At the speed Sunburn travels at, even if it was killed at the CIWS maxiumum range of 1,500 meters, flaming wreckage from the missile would still reach it's target.
Quote:
|
SeaRam's been rumored to be the next generation CIWS capable of handling the supersonic sunburn type missiles with very good results in testing (but of course totally unconfirmed).
|
Sea RAM has actually been around since the mid '80s: Phalanx was actually orignally only intended as a stop-gap before Sea RAM was ready. But since Phalanx was cheaper, guess which one Congress was most willing to pay for?
Anyway, another promising future CIWS is the 57mm Mk.110 that will be used by the DD-1000, which has ten times the effective range of Phalanx, and double the range of even Sea RAM! Although it has a much slower ROF than Phalanx, it's high range coupled with it's ability to use fragmentation shells more than compensates for that.