[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: Could this system provide an umbrella protecting
Israeli forces controlling the Philadelphi Corridor?]

Phalanx gun may be best defense against Hamas rockets
By MARTIN SIEFF UPI Senior News Analyst March 17, 2009 at 11:22 AM
http://www.upi.com/Security_Industry/2009/03/17/Phalanx_gun_may_be_best_defense_against_Hamas_rockets/UPI-88301237303355/

WASHINGTON, March 17 (UPI) -- Israel has spent years prioritizing its
ambitious Iron Dome interceptor program to shoot down very-short-range
rockets that bombard towns and settlements within range of the Hamas
stronghold of Gaza. Yet Iron Dome will not be near deployment until the
middle of next year at the very earliest, if then.

And there are grave questions about using an anti-ballistic missile
interceptor system, each of whose super-fast rockets costs 10 to 50 times as
much as the extremely cheap, low-tech Qassam rockets they are meant to
intercept.

Yet the development of U.S. defense systems against very-short-range missile
attack suggests that when tactical missiles are fired at close range, the
best U.S. weapon to shoot them down may be a good old-fashioned machine gun.

Except there is nothing old-fashioned about Raytheon's Mark 15 Phalanx
Close-In Weapons System, or CIWS: It is already the BMD weapon of last
resort of the U.S. Navy and has been increasingly used by the U.S. Army in
Iraq.

Interest in the Phalanx CIWS stirred in Israel in fall 2006 following the
massive Katyusha rocket mortar bombardment of northern Israel by Hezbollah
in its brief conflict in July that year.

The Katyusha attacks followed an escalating series of less intense and
formidable, but still potentially dangerous, attacks against Israel by
relatively low-tech, very-short-range Qassam missiles fired by Hamas and its
allies from within Gaza, which Israeli forces evacuated in summer 2005.

The Israeli army made a massive three-week incursion into Gaza in January
this year but failed to seriously attempt to topple Hamas, and as soon as
the army left, the rhythm of Qassam bombardments started again.

The Israeli military establishment, spearheaded by Defense Minister Ehud
Barak and Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, continues to bet big on
the technologically pioneering Iron Dome concept. The Phalanx, however, has
several striking advantages over Iron Dome.

First, it is already operational and being produced and deployed in
relatively large numbers.

Second, it is the outgrowth of an already mature technology. Super-powerful,
ultra-high-speed machine guns have been a key element of the U.S. armed
forces for decades. The awesome Gatling gun was used to devastating
operational effect in Vietnam.

The radar-guided, rapid-firing Phalanx CIWS is a worthy successor to the
Gatling. Defense Industry Daily noted in a late 2006 report that it can
"fire between 3,000-4,500 20mm rounds per minute, either autonomously or
under manual command, as a last-ditch defense against incoming missiles and
other targets."

"Phalanx uses closed-loop spotting with advanced radar and computer
technology to locate, identify and direct a stream of armor piercing
projectiles to the target," DID said.

Defense Industry Daily noted that two and a half years ago the Phalanx CIWS
was already installed "on approximately 187 U.S. Navy ships and is in use in
20 foreign navies."

Third, the Phalanx CIWS is vastly more flexible than the ambitious and
promising, but still experimental Northrop Grumman Skyguard/Nautilus THEL
laser systems. Whatever their other differences, the U.S. armed forces and
the Israeli Defense Ministry have exhibited a shared reluctance to push
ahead with Skyguard/Nautilus/THEL.