3 ms·

> (...) perhaps a radar controlled light machine gun would have to be developed. The Phalanx CIWS would fit the bill nicely (except for the 'light' part) [0].

by lb1lf 5y ago

> (...) perhaps a radar controlled light machine gun would have to be developed. The Phalanx CIWS would fit the bill nicely (except for the 'light' part) [0]. [0] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Zsf38NYzo5Q https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Zsf38NYzo5Q

WJW 5y ago
Fun fact: CIWS are not actually that great for shooting at pirate skiffs, since 1. They typically require radar lock before being able to fire in the first place and a fiberglass dinghy has a really low radar cross section and also typically not enough doppler since it doesn't go at anti-ship missile speeds. 2. The manual override for this behavior has "rather poor" UX to say the least, since it is not really a core feature of the system. The whole point of a CIWS is that it's only used in the last few seconds of an engagement at speeds at which humans cannot react. 3. The ammunition used is typically subcaliber armor piercing discarding sabot type rounds. They are optimized at taking down an anti ship missile if they hit by destroying the guidance section of the missile or (if you get a lucky hit) detonating the warhead. They will just go through a pirate skiff and come out the other end. The skiff is lighter than water so it won't sink. What you want is a 76mm gun or a RWCS like the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitrole https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitrole, preferably firing airburst and/or flechette rounds. They have a much better probability to hit and disable the target than a CIWS. Source: Used to be a weapons engineering officer for the Royal Netherlands Navy. A ship I was on caught some pirates off the coast of Somalia once and (after the pirates were taken into custody) we tried to sink their vessel with the CIWS, leading to the lessons in the post above. It turns out it is really tough to sink something lighter than water by punching holes into it and the expected "the CIWS will saw the dinghy in half" effect was much less than we hoped.
- lb1lf 5y ago
  -Thanks! This is why I love HN. :) My work takes me offshore on occasion, and twice I've been on vessels in pirate-prone areas; the different approaches taken were quite telling: a) On a vessel flying the Norwegian flag - 'Oh, we'll just train our fi-fi water cannon on them, end of story, everybody will hail us as humanitarian as f*k for using water rather than lead - except the result is the same.' b) On a Marshall Islands-registered, US operated vessel - a handful of private security contractors, using .50 guns retrofitted with bayonet mounts compatible with the ones used for the smallest water cannon - so at the first sight of pirates, they'd set up shop and, ah, encourage the pirates to pursue other career paths.
PostOnce 5y ago
Kongsberg's got ya covered for that too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protector_(RWS) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protector_(RWS) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CROWS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CROWS They might even still make parts for their old explosive harpoons in case your ship is attacked by whales.

by lb1lf 5y ago

WJW 5y ago

Fun fact: CIWS are not actually that great for shooting at pirate skiffs, since 1. They typically require radar lock before being able to fire in the first place and a fiberglass dinghy has a really low radar cross section and also typically not enough doppler since it doesn't go at anti-ship missile speeds. 2. The manual override for this behavior has "rather poor" UX to say the least, since it is not really a core feature of the system. The whole point of a CIWS is that it's only used in the last few seconds of an engagement at speeds at which humans cannot react. 3. The ammunition used is typically subcaliber armor piercing discarding sabot type rounds. They are optimized at taking down an anti ship missile if they hit by destroying the guidance section of the missile or (if you get a lucky hit) detonating the warhead. They will just go through a pirate skiff and come out the other end. The skiff is lighter than water so it won't sink. What you want is a 76mm gun or a RWCS like the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitrole https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitrole, preferably firing airburst and/or flechette rounds. They have a much better probability to hit and disable the target than a CIWS. Source: Used to be a weapons engineering officer for the Royal Netherlands Navy. A ship I was on caught some pirates off the coast of Somalia once and (after the pirates were taken into custody) we tried to sink their vessel with the CIWS, leading to the lessons in the post above. It turns out it is really tough to sink something lighter than water by punching holes into it and the expected "the CIWS will saw the dinghy in half" effect was much less than we hoped.

lb1lf 5y ago
-Thanks! This is why I love HN. :) My work takes me offshore on occasion, and twice I've been on vessels in pirate-prone areas; the different approaches taken were quite telling: a) On a vessel flying the Norwegian flag - 'Oh, we'll just train our fi-fi water cannon on them, end of story, everybody will hail us as humanitarian as f*k for using water rather than lead - except the result is the same.' b) On a Marshall Islands-registered, US operated vessel - a handful of private security contractors, using .50 guns retrofitted with bayonet mounts compatible with the ones used for the smallest water cannon - so at the first sight of pirates, they'd set up shop and, ah, encourage the pirates to pursue other career paths.

PostOnce 5y ago

Kongsberg's got ya covered for that too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protector_(RWS) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protector_(RWS) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CROWS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CROWS They might even still make parts for their old explosive harpoons in case your ship is attacked by whales.