Phalanx CIWS in the Falklands

[uk 75]

The Royal Navy started receiving Phalanx CIWS too late for the 1982 Falklands War.

It would be interesting to know what the impact of the following would have been:

Phalanx fitted on T42 and Fearless/Intrepid as it was later in the 80s.

Replacement of Seacat by Phalanx on a one for one basis on all or some destroyers (County) and frigates (Amazon, Leander and Rothesay).

 

[Dilandu]

Hard to say, would it be any better... not that Phalanx have an outstanding combat record. And replacing the inefficient but well-known Sea Cat with Phalanx on RN ships just before the war could quite easily result in bugged and ureliable system rushed into action.

 

[NOMISYRRUC]

I once thought of developing an improved STAAG called Wicketkeeper* which would have been more reliable & required less maintenance than the STAAG Mk II that it replaced. I hoped that it would weigh the same & consume the same space as a Sea Cat launcher to allow a one-to-one substitution and (for example) Fearless & Intrepid would have been completed with 4 Wicketkeepers instead of 4 Sea Cat systems.

Would that have been an improvement on Sea Cat?

*And yes it is called Wicketkeeper because the Dutch called their CIWS Goalkeeper.

 

[Scott Kenny]

The Royal Navy started receiving Phalanx CIWS too late for the 1982 Falklands War.

It would be interesting to know what the impact of the following would have been:

Phalanx fitted on T42 and Fearless/Intrepid as it was later in the 80s.

Replacement of Seacat by Phalanx on a one for one basis on all or some destroyers (County) and frigates (Amazon, Leander and Rothesay).

Was Sea Cat the point defense missile or the local area defense missile?

Because Phalanx is very much a point defense system, it only engages things coming directly at the Phalanx.

 

[NOMISYRRUC]

Was Sea Cat the point defense missile or the local area defense missile?

Because Phalanx is very much a point defense system, it only engages things coming directly at the Phalanx.

The first paragraph of the Wikipedia entry puts it better than I can.

Seacat was a British short-range surface-to-air missile system intended to replace the ubiquitous Bofors 40 mm gun aboard warships of all sizes. It was the world's first operational shipboard point-defence missile system, and was designed so that the Bofors guns could be replaced with minimum modification to the recipient vessel and (originally) using existing fire-control systems. A mobile land-based version of the system was known as Tigercat.

 

[Scott Kenny]

The first paragraph of the Wikipedia entry puts it better than I can.

I asked because one of the missile systems was found to be absolutely terrible at engaging crossing targets and I could not remember which one it was.

Several of the escorts attempted to do their escort job but the missiles they had were not up to the job.

 

[Yellow Palace]

*And yes it is called Wicketkeeper because the Dutch called their CIWS Goalkeeper.

I would point out that a wicket-keeper is stationed to catch the ball after it has already missed, and use it to defeat the original target. It's probably a better name for a system intended to allow missiles seduced by soft-kill measures to reattack!