Little Known Facts: Close-In-Weapons-Systems or CIWS
May 6, 2024 21:07:02 #
To protect ships from missile attacks a class of weapons called CIWS have been developed and employed by the navies of the world. These weapons typically use a rapid-fire gatling gun of at least 20 mm, and for many navies a preference for 30 mm gun and ammo better to ensure one or more rounds hit the missile warhead with sufficient energy to blow it up.
This led to the incorporation of search and tracking systems, usually x, and Ka band radar, and then optical sensors and infrared sensors to complement the radar. The system I am most familiar with was Manufactured by the Dutch Company HSA (Now Thales), and it used the US GAU-8 30 mm cannon. The main problem was to be able to hit an incoming missile going at mach 3 and jinking to try to set the CIWS off-track. Calculations showed that the missile must be hit two times to impart enough energy to blow up the warhead.
The system, called Goalkeeper, was tested continually over 1980-85, and was extremely successful in hitting 120mm shells fired from a frigate two times before 600 meters from the target area. The shells were recovered and confirmed the hits consistently.
We had to account for ship motion in sea states up to 5, the integration of the systems into the ships intercommunications bus system, and the wild trajectories of possible missiles we knew about at that time, flight time of the rounds, and types of rounds to be employed. (A bit of bragging: my team was responsible for the entire software for Goalkeeper.)
Over 82 of these systems were sold to worldwide navies at last report, and Goalkeeper is illustrated on-line today.
This led to the incorporation of search and tracking systems, usually x, and Ka band radar, and then optical sensors and infrared sensors to complement the radar. The system I am most familiar with was Manufactured by the Dutch Company HSA (Now Thales), and it used the US GAU-8 30 mm cannon. The main problem was to be able to hit an incoming missile going at mach 3 and jinking to try to set the CIWS off-track. Calculations showed that the missile must be hit two times to impart enough energy to blow up the warhead.
The system, called Goalkeeper, was tested continually over 1980-85, and was extremely successful in hitting 120mm shells fired from a frigate two times before 600 meters from the target area. The shells were recovered and confirmed the hits consistently.
We had to account for ship motion in sea states up to 5, the integration of the systems into the ships intercommunications bus system, and the wild trajectories of possible missiles we knew about at that time, flight time of the rounds, and types of rounds to be employed. (A bit of bragging: my team was responsible for the entire software for Goalkeeper.)
Over 82 of these systems were sold to worldwide navies at last report, and Goalkeeper is illustrated on-line today.
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