[JewishRighter]

Anyone know why someone would want this system @ 180 25mm rds/min versus Phalanx @ 4,500 20 mm rds/min?

They seem to be described as having a very similar mission.

[Calvin Locke]

... proven against multiple surface threats...

You want to waste your air defense against small watercraft, then have Iran's "10,000" missiles inbound while you're trying to reload the Phalanx?

[rmlew]

It is cheaper and not autonomous so accidents are less likely to occur.

[STD]

Hi JR, They have a different mission profile; the CIWS is still the "golden standard" last line of defense for inbound missile's, cruise and ballistic theater based tactical weapons. The typhoons (this BAE gun system) are specifically used for point defense from less exotic and probably more common littoral threats eg. speedboats, Borghammers etc,,, What we like to call "Smoke on the Water" and then "Fire in the Sky" when we are finished with them.

High rates of fire are a colossal waste of ammo when all we need is a few well placed chain gun rounds to destroys inflatables, speedboats etc,,, Your point on reloading the CIWS is completely without merit. It's done almost as fast as the six barrel Gatling style gun runs out of rounds. Maybe an active duty gunner's mate can comment on this, but when they were relatively new weapons, we could reload them in less than 15 seconds. Understand, that this was the stated reloading time, not the actual time necessary to do the job. It could be done faster by highly motivated personnel. Prior to this guns system, we used M2's and M-60's which were insufficient.