On any issues with the Phalanx system,

is it a case of the gun itself being to antiquated for the role,

or was the weapons system's fire control (sensor time to shooter time loop) not up to the task of bringing down an inbound threat?

 

I ask this because it seems those "landed" Phalanx, in the form of the Centurions being deployed in Iraq (any in A-stan?) seem to have succeeded at least 100 times (give or take, by claimed count) against various mortar rounds and rockets coming into FOBs.

I realize many of these threats were most likely more crossing targets than coming directly at the Phalanx mount(in the general direction of, as would be on a ship).

And certainly lobbed mortar shells are generally slower than flat-trajectory ASMs (even though Phalanx was programmed to attack those ASMs that pitched up in the terminal phase and dove into their targets),

but with the 20mm HEI rounds of the Centurion version being able to deter thick-skinned mortar rounds,

I want to think the DU (early Phalanx) and tungsten APDS rounds of the ship-mounted systems would easily have physically deterred any ASM threats.

 

Was it a matter of fire control software being not up to the task, and the system couldn't react fast enough

(for shipboard defense) ?

Or was the sole/main reason the Phalanx' rather short range,  <1 mile, ?

For time-to-react, I don't really see the SeaRAM launchers really slewing any faster than Phalanx mounts, the key advantage being RAMs can reach out much farther.

 

But for a ship like an LCS, operating near shore and within range of coastal/near-coastal artillery, would the option of a Phalanx still be worthwhile, especially if it can be useful against even the ocassional ship-fired artillery shells (100mm & > ) ?

Or, like those Israeli missile boats, would LCS depend principally on speed and agility to avoid any gun-fired projectiles?

 

(seems to me that offering Phalanx to a number of commercial merchants could in itself create a very effective anti-piracy deterrent...)

Could you imagine what type of ADF we would have if the people up stairs actually did read our threads and act upon them.