Author Topic: Did the USS Mason use its Phalanx to shoot down the incoming missiles?  (Read 1701 times)

Offline DaveBB

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As we all know by now, a U.S. Guided Missile Destroyer was attacked by two anti-ship missiles.  However, the Navy is only saying "The missiles impacted the water, and did not hit the ship".  The USS Mason is equipped with a single 20mm Phalanx CIWS.  Did it use that to shoot down the incoming missiles?
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Offline DaveBB

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Re: Did the USS Mason use its Phalanx to shoot down the incoming missiles?
« Reply #1 on: October 10, 2016, 04:38:28 PM »
I did a bit of reading.  It appears that the Mason has the capability to actually destroy the electronics of incoming missiles with its ECM.  Another ship adjacent to the Mason actually had an anti-missile laser.

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But the USS Mason, probably had at least SEWIP Block I or II, making it perfectly capable of frying the missile's seeker with the AN/SLQ or diverting it with a Nulka.


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Offline EagleDNY

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Re: Did the USS Mason use its Phalanx to shoot down the incoming missiles?
« Reply #2 on: October 10, 2016, 08:09:45 PM »
If it was attacked by the same C-802 that hit the other ship I wouldn't be surprised if they could just jam that punk radar into oblivion. 

Offline Gman

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Re: Did the USS Mason use its Phalanx to shoot down the incoming missiles?
« Reply #3 on: October 10, 2016, 10:21:31 PM »
The CIWS/20mm Phalanx is the very last ditch defense for incoming an anti ship missile, the Burke class ships have SM2/3/6/etc class missiles for longer range air defense against both aircraft and missiles, ESSM evolved Sea Sparrows for closer in air defense which are fantastic now compared to the older Sea Sparrow missiles.  Some of the Burke class destroyers have the new SeaRam rolling airframe missile launcher systems too, not sure if the Mason does or not.  And, as others have said, a few ships have laser defense systems, but these aren't optimal for fast missiles and are more for drones, small boats, and slower moving targets - for now.  I've read that in the 2 VLS fore/aft launchers for most Burkes, that 72 cells are often loaded for anti air warfare, split by 48 SM2 missiles, 8 SM6/other long range/special SM variants, and then 16 tubes for ESSM which are quad packed, giving 64 ESSM shots.  That's quite a lot of firepower for one ship just for anti air ops, not counting the Tomahawks, Harpoons, and anti sub/torpedo missiles either.

ECM is as said a likely defense as well, there are some pretty advanced decoy/chaff systems on board USN destroyers, cruisers, and other warships as well.  So, quite a lot of potential ways the missiles could have been defeated, just glad they were.  Considering these missiles were pretty successful in striking the recent HSV2 ship, obviously they were stopped by some form of USN defenses, be it passive ECM/decoys or an actual missile/Ciws deal.
« Last Edit: October 10, 2016, 10:25:22 PM by Gman »

Offline zack1234

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Re: Did the USS Mason use its Phalanx to shoot down the incoming missiles?
« Reply #4 on: October 11, 2016, 12:10:10 AM »
Was this on the news?
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Offline GScholz

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Re: Did the USS Mason use its Phalanx to shoot down the incoming missiles?
« Reply #5 on: October 11, 2016, 06:24:43 AM »
Diving into the sea is the typical method of self destruction for a sea skimmer. My guess is that the rebels were too inept to program a correct search and attack profile into the missiles. They ran their search patterns and self destructed when they didn't find a viable target. Never underestimate the ineptness of these people when operating advanced equipment.

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Offline jollyFE

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Re: Did the USS Mason use its Phalanx to shoot down the incoming missiles?
« Reply #6 on: October 11, 2016, 08:26:19 AM »
these guys have advisors down there from our "Friends" in Iran.  They are looking for another choke point.
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Offline Nilsen

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Re: Did the USS Mason use its Phalanx to shoot down the incoming missiles?
« Reply #7 on: October 11, 2016, 12:47:08 PM »
Im thinking its operator error or faulty missiles.

Offline jollyFE

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Re: Did the USS Mason use its Phalanx to shoot down the incoming missiles?
« Reply #8 on: October 11, 2016, 02:42:57 PM »
could be ecm too
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Offline Zimme83

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Offline Gman

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Re: Did the USS Mason use its Phalanx to shoot down the incoming missiles?
« Reply #10 on: October 11, 2016, 04:01:42 PM »
They were competent enough to hit the HSV2.  It's possible they could have screwed up their launches vs the Mason, but I wouldn't assume that based on their successful attack on one ship already.  Looks like the Mason fired SM2s and ESSMs, plus used one of their missile decoy systems - so pretty much all the above from last post, I doubt we'll ever know if they intercepted the incoming missiles or if they splashed themselves due to operator error, but the threat was real enough for the USN to launch weapons and deploy decoys.

Interesting the firing of both SM2 and ESSM.  This would make me tend to think that the incoming missiles, or at least one of them,  got inside the SM2 range gate for optimal intercept and that the ESSM which is more optimal for some shorter range intercepts was fired. 
« Last Edit: October 11, 2016, 04:05:38 PM by Gman »

Offline Randy1

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Re: Did the USS Mason use its Phalanx to shoot down the incoming missiles?
« Reply #11 on: October 11, 2016, 04:06:29 PM »
Good thing we paid them all that money so they can new cruise missiles.

Offline Ack-Ack

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Re: Did the USS Mason use its Phalanx to shoot down the incoming missiles?
« Reply #12 on: October 11, 2016, 04:15:10 PM »
I'm surprised we didn't immediately retaliate with some naval gunfire on the launching positions. 
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Offline Nilsen

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Re: Did the USS Mason use its Phalanx to shoot down the incoming missiles?
« Reply #13 on: October 11, 2016, 04:19:40 PM »
https://news.usni.org/2016/10/11/uss-mason-fired-3-missiles-to-defend-from-yemen-cruise-missiles-attack

Interesting. I would think the Mason has some sort of recordings or automated log of the missile tracks and whatnot so they prolly know already what if any of the missiles hit. Would be great if any of them actually worked as intended in real life situation.

Offline jollyFE

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Re: Did the USS Mason use its Phalanx to shoot down the incoming missiles?
« Reply #14 on: October 11, 2016, 04:55:34 PM »
they probably couldn't pinpoint the exact location of launch or weren't allowed to shoot back.
Every time a Nit vulches,  an angel get it's wings.