• remotelove@lemmy.ca
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    4 months ago

    Most US Navy ships have had CIWS systems since the 70s and have had many upgrades to their tracking systems since then. The US Army adopted the LPWS (C-RAM) which is basically a portable CIWS for land use. (The Russian version of the CIWS is called a Kortik.)

    It wouldn’t surprise me if there are already CIWS-type systems for commercial ships operating in hazardous zones.

    I have had the pleasure of standing next to a few CIWS systems during live fire testing and it’s quite the experience.

    • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Yes, very much so. The reason I think there might be add ons is due to the nature of the threat.

      Very angry, low visible, high speed, armored, unmanned surface vehicles that hunt in packs.

      • The Rim116 might not be usable because by the time you see them you might not want to / can not use a missile anymore.
      • The gun based ciws (midas/goalkeeper/phalanx et al.) might not have enough penetration. They are built for engaging unarmored targets.

      We can make fun of the Russian expansion of their submarine fleet in de black sea all we want… but if these maguras where an easy threat to deal with they would. No reason to think any NATO surface combatant would do any better when suddenly confronted with a similar threat.

      • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Would probably be nothing more than a software update. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were already capable of engaging boats.

        • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          They are… gun based ciws can easily be used against ribs and such. I just don’t know if a drone boat ban be armored enough to withstand the onslaught.

            • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              I have no clue what kind of penetration a phalanx has, but Magura is armored… there I also don’t know if this is just against small arms but I’d imagine a bit more. Also a drone boat is not shaped like a normal boat. It is flat with a sloped top so even chance of glancing blows.