Analyst: DDGs without CIWS vulnerable

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Some Burkes lacking?
Destroyers have cruised without CIWS in hot spots


Analyst: DDGs without CIWS vulnerable
By Philip Ewing - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Sep 15, 2008 5:49:55 EDT

For all the modifications and improvements that have come with each new Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, the 20 most recent ships have arrived from the shipyard missing something — the distinctive white domes of the Phalanx Close In Weapons System.

The first 34 Burkes carry two of the 20mm, six-barrel Gatling guns, known as CIWS, which can find and shoot down air targets that slip through the outer defenses of a ship or task group.

But since 2002, destroyers have come from the builders without the guns, as plans called for a new missile, the Evolved Sea Sparrow, to take their place. But technical problems delayed the missile’s fleet introduction, so commanders decided in 2002 to outfit new ships with the standard CIWS until the ESSM came online. Eventually, every DDG 51-class destroyer will carry both.

In the interim, some of the Navy’s newest ships have cruised without CIWS in hot spots throughout the world, including the 5th Fleet area of operations and the Western Pacific. Navy officials say the destroyers were capable of carrying ESSMs in their vertical launch tubes, giving them the ability to shoot down incoming missiles.

But whether the ships actually had the weapons aboard — and whether they could hit nearby targets on the surface, as CIWS can — is unclear. The Navy’s not talking, and while a few photographs of CIWS-less ships can be found on http://www.navy.mil, it’s impossible to tell whether they’re carrying ESSMs in their vertical launch tubes instead.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/09/navy_ciws_091408w/%2e