Cliffy B wrote:
DavidP wrote:
i think they are in the vls as don't see them on any of the ships but shows armed with 8 harpoons according to navsource.
Harpoons are NOT VLS capable, at least the current models anyway. Some of the Burkes in the middle didn't get Harpoon or CIWS and not all were backfitted. You'll have to check ship specific photos and date stamps to be 100% sure.
Who wants to know the dirty secret why not all the Burkes have CIWS of some sort?
Blue Pill - Well, you'll just never know.
Red Pill - The Navy was hedging so many of its bets that ESSM was going to, in one swoop, make Phalanx and RAM obsolete, so the Navy quit ordering Phalanx units, and the assembly line was shut down. The line was re-tooled for other stuff, and only support parts were being manufactured.
ESSM failed over and over and over again for so long that 7, if I remember correctly maybe more, DDGs were completed without CIWS. When the Navy had enough of the promises, they paid to have the Phalanx assembly line started back up, and Phalanx units started rolling out again, now all Block 1B models. The Navy understood ESSM would work, just not right now, and our ships needed CIWS to defend themselves in the mean-time. New DDGs came out with either RAM or Phalanx fitted. The desire...get this: "when funds come available"... to have Phalanx foward and RAM aft. They just won't buy them both at once.
This is coming from BAE/Raytheon Systems.
Harpoons: The Flight IIA ships have adaptors and rails set up for Mk141 launchers to be installed between the aft VLS pad and the aft illuminators to fire criss-cross across the back of the ship while keeping clear of a phalanx or RAM mount if either installed. One must keep in mind also, Harpoon is a plug-and-play weapon, too. Anywhere you can fit them, you can stick them.
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