Rocket heading to the ship
Landing exercises are being landed on naval exercises, they are searching for submarines and sometimes shooting at targets in the form of barges anchored with container barricades lined up on the deck. (Why? To facilitate the guidance of the missiles and report “up” about success.) If you get an opportunity, then bombed and shot decommissioned ships.
The variant with interception of the air purposes is much less often fulfilled. The next radio-controlled "blank" (as a rule, subsonic) is launched, along which ship-based air defense systems fire. If there are enough long-range missiles and allow the characteristics of the radar, you can try to intercept the ballistic missile warhead. To get a bullet in a flying bullet. In the sparkling high in the sky night meteorite. Somewhere apart, hundreds of miles away from the ship.
But almost no one ever shot at air targets equipped with an active target guidance system. At that tragic and dangerous moment, when the simulator of a combat missile went with a COURSE AT SHOOTING SHOOTING AT HIM.
Exercise leaders know how dangerous such experiments are. That the possibilities of even the best echelon defense are described by the 0,9 fraction ..., and most of the ships are generally defenseless against such a threat. Too little time and the cost of a mistake.
Happy starts, or what, if you still bahnem?
Fools and suicides in command positions is not so much. And the number available, fortunately, does not reach the critical mass necessary to start a catastrophe.
Nevertheless, in the course of combat training of fleets of leading countries of the world, situations that resemble the “happy starts” described above sometimes and very rarely occurred. Those who gave orders, it is difficult to suspect evil intentions. Most likely, there was a reassessment of the capabilities of new defensive systems or a tragic (albeit statistically predictable) coincidence.
To prevent possible consequences, certain security measures were taken. A rocket self-destruct system was installed, which disconnected the GPS or undermined the simulator during a dangerous approach to the attacked ship.
Attack schemes have been developed, in which the target, in the event of an unsuccessful interception, should have missed its course with the attacked ship (although, in this case, you will not understand which of them is the target).
The calculations of the ship-based air defense missile systems are on full alert and notified about the likely direction and time of the start of the attack.
Exact exercise statistics are kept classified as “secret”, but certain information can be drawn from information leaked through the media. Despite its rarity, such “teachings” ended in an emergency three times, and once in a catastrophe.
Incident with the frigate “Entrym”
February 10, 1983, Atlantic Ocean. The frigate USS Antrim (FFG-20) attempted to intercept a radio-controlled target, shooting it from the newest and “unparalleled” self-defense complex “Phalanx”.
A couple of words about the “Falanx”: a six-barreled automatic gun and a radar guidance system mounted on a single mobile gun carriage. When compared with the domestic counterpart, the AK-630 metal cutter, Internet experts traditionally underestimate the Phalanx, hinting at the low power of 20-mm projectiles compared to X-NUMX-mm AK-30 caliber. And in vain. A monoblock from a cannon and a radar has a smaller error when firing than the AK-630 gun turret installed separately (often ten meters from each other) and its Pennant control radar. Also, due to its compactness of the entire system, the “Falanx” servo drives provide greater speed of turning the stem block (630 degrees / sec in any plane against 115 degrees / sec for AK-75).
Battery AK-630. On the left edge of the photo is visible radar "Vympel"
Power is also not easy: this "naval R2D2" fires specially designed MK.149 projectiles with a tungsten core. Due to the absence of strict restrictions on weight and dimensions and requirements for transportation, ship guns are always more powerful aviation and land analogues. The muzzle velocity of the Phalanx projectiles is over a kilometer per second. When hitting anti-ship missiles, high-speed, dense and extremely durable MK.149 ammunition should cause a release of thermal energy and instant detonation of the missile warhead.
Those who speak of the weakness of “Phalanx CIWS” have never even shot themselves from the little ones themselves. If you remember the veterans' stories about how the DShK machine gun is crushing the brickwork, it’s easy to imagine how a six-barreled monster of twice the size goes by.
In 1996, during the RIMPAC-96 exercise, such a cannon in half a second cut the Intruder attack aircraft that had accidentally flown into the Phalanx defeat zone.
Why am I praising this “Falanx” here? To stop the debate about the inefficiency of the American defense system, which could have caused the events described below.
However, the reason was by no means anti-aircraft capabilities.
On that day, the air defenses worked perfectly. According to eyewitnesses, the antiaircraft gun “shredded” the drone into separate fragments, which collapsed into the water five hundred meters from the frigate. The target was stunned and completely destroyed.
Radio-controlled target Northrop BQM-74E Chukar
But they did not have time to celebrate the victory. As if according to the plot of the film about the terminator, burnt pieces drone ricocheted off the water and in a second they STARTED INTO THE FRIGATE SUPERSTRUCTURE. Spilled fuel caused a fire in the computer compartment, one sailor became the victim of the incident.
Despite all the absence of a warhead and the diminution of the drone itself (the launch weight is 250 kg), the frigate was disabled.
It is not difficult to imagine what will happen to any modern frigate at a meeting with a bunch of “Onyxes” and “Caliber”. Even if he manages to intercept them all, the wreckage of the downed rockets is guaranteed to cripple the ship.
In confirmation of this - the next short story.
In the summer of 1990, the Americans conducted a fun and instructive experiment. On board the decommissioned destroyer “Stoddard” (from the Second World War) numerous sensors, video cameras and “Phalanxes” of the new model were installed. The destroyer abandoned by the crew was turned into a sort of floating fort, which was to repel attacks from all points. There were no volunteer suicides among the sailors, so all the shooting was done in a fully automatic mode.
Converted into a USS Stoddard target (DD-566)
According to the Yankees themselves, they were able to intercept the entire range of missiles during the tests - from primitive BQM-74 to supersonic Vandals. However, the performance of “Phalanx” still turned out to be lower than 100%. Fragments of rockets reached the destroyer. And one aspiring drone hit the superstructure area, and, according to eyewitnesses, cut the diesel generator installed there in half. As I said, the efficiency was lower than 100%.
The death of “Monsoon”
- “First”, I “Third” (call sign MRK “Whirlwind”), “product” got into “Second” (call sign “Monsoon”). “Second” is on. People leave the ship ... ”
This famous story happened on April 16, 1987, 33 miles from Askold Island. Pacific Rocket Ship Squad fleet practiced joint firing of air defense systems. Having discovered a missile reaching him, the Monsoon missile launched a two-rocket salvo along it with the Osa-M marine anti-aircraft complex. Both SAMs exploded near the target, damaging the anti-ship missile with a flurry of fragments and the energy of the shock wave. However, by a tragic coincidence, the RM-15M Termit-R training target missile continued its flight and crashed into the superstructure of the attacked ship. The resulting fire completely de-energized the RTOs and created a threat of detonation of the ammunition on board. The approaching ships also did not dare to approach the dying Monsoon. As a result of the tragedy, 39 of the 76 sailors aboard were killed.
Within the framework of this article, the task of finding the guilty among the command and a full analysis of the actions of the crew members of the deceased MRK are not worth it. The case of the “Monsoon” is another example of the fact that the downed rocket continues to pose a threat to the ship and all those on board.
Sailors have known about this threat since the Second World War. Faced with the “kamikaze” attacks, the Americans quickly found out that even the powerful and automated “Bofors” of the 40 mm caliber in such a situation are not able to effectively protect the ship. The burning plane with the dead pilot continued his sorrowful path to the goal. It was not by chance that in the first post-war years the Yankees began to arm ships with anti-aircraft guns of caliber 76 mm.
In general, the situation described looks unambiguously:
1) knock down, ignite and shred a rocket into parts does not mean anything. The debris ricochets from the water and just continue on its way to the goal. At the same time, these fragments are a little similar to the fragments of a broken cup. These are pieces of aluminum and plastic weighed with a good dumbbell. Which move with the speed of a bullet. And while it can contain flammable and explosive substances in dangerous quantities;
2) knock down the CRP on long-range borders - the offer is good, but not real. Considering that the Earth is round, and modern PURs are flying low over water, they are detected at the last minute, at distances 10-20 miles from the ship. Where all hope only means melee. Which can not do anything: the kinetic energy of transonic objects having a mass from a passenger car is too high;
3) what to do with all this is decidedly incomprehensible. Putting five “Falanxes” and AK-630 on each ship will not solve the problem (see paragraphs 1 and 2).
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