Phalanx: defender of the realm

Richard Scott

Thursday, 10 September, 2009

More than a quarter of a century after the Phalanx close-in weapon system was rushed into UK Royal Navy (RN) service in the aftermath of the Falklands War, Raytheon (Stand 1555) has brought the latest battle-proven Land-based Phalanx Weapon System (LPWS) version to DSEi.

Adapted from the naval Phalanx mounting, LPWS was developed to meet a US Army requirement to counter indirect fire from rockets, artillery and mortar rounds. An essentially similar system has subsequently been delivered to meet the needs of the UK armed forces in Iraq.

Developed by Raytheon Missile Systems, LPWS takes the basic Phalanx Block 1B mounting – featuring a 20mm M61A1 Gatling gun with a Ku-band search-and-track radar and an electro-optical sensor – and packages it into a deployable and fully self-contained system (incorporating the mounting itself plus a generator, cooling system and an enclosed operator station) fitted to a flatbed trailer. Phalanx was first tested for counter rocket, artillery and mortar (C-RAM) applications in November 2004. It entered service with the US Army the following year.

The UK raised its Urgent Operational Requirement for a C-RAM weapon in early 2007. Raytheon has declined to comment on the specifics of the programme, saying only that it worked closely with what is now the Ministry of Defence’s International Guns, Missiles and Rockets team to deliver the contracted capability into theatre “to cost, time and performance” in just 10 months. The UK LPWS programme has seen an undisclosed number of RN mountings (the service had a total inventory of 36) returned to Raytheon in the USA for remanufacture.

Although Raytheon and the MoD will not discuss the operational usage of UK LPWS, it has been widely reported that the system was deployed to Basra airport to provide protection against the indirect fire threat. It is understood that the system was operated in theatre by 16 Royal Artillery, with RN maintainers deployed to provide maintenance support.

The MoD has said, however, that the “rapid progression of the [LPWS] equipment solution identified to provide this capability has been a good example of the UOR process and ability of the US and UK armed forces working together to deliver the equipment needed at the front line”.