An A-10 Thunderbolt IIs with the 74th Fighter Squadron from Moody Air Force Base in Georgia flying over the Gulf of Mexico on February 7 during a weapons-system evaluation program at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. US Air Force photo/Ilka Cole
Business Insider: US military test shows the A-10 'Warthog' can obliterate the small-boat swarms that Iran uses
About 35 local boat captains simulated swarming attack maneuvers in fishing boats rigged with machine guns while fighter jets, attack helicopters, and the A-10 "Warthog" simulated attacks from above in Florida's Choctawhatchee Bay.
The Air Force at Eglin Air Force Base organized the simulation, called Combat Hammer, to address one of the more pressing threats to the US Navy: attacks from swarming fast-attack craft.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: the problem with using the A-10 as your weapon of choice to obliterate a small-boat swarm attack from Iran is that by the time the A-10s have arrived .... the battle would have probably been over.
8 comments:
I imagine that US Navy helicopters will play a crucial role in such a battle. 16 missiles each.
How many minutes from detection of the boat swarm until engagement/hostilities? Problem is that with rules of engagement it might be too late from first hostility to outright swarm engagement (the swarm may not do anything until too late). ..talking <5min here. ..way too little time - even if already a couple of planes or helicopters were in the air. .. Lasers /railguns/automated machine guns is the way to go..no human or group of pilots can reliably engage swarms
Anon hit in on the nose. lasers will be deployed and these swarms will have met their match. Lights out! Of course that is the ace in the hole that isn't acknowledged generally.
Well the problem with lasers is that they are probably not effective in misty conditions/when there is fog..so a combination of a10,Heliopters if there's more time /lower number of boats in the swarm and automated kinetic/machine gun/rocket/laser system. .whatever is most effective in combination at typical weather conditions including fog. .also one or two mind controlled sea creatures would be cool. .just because! :)
Surley phalanx will chew them up
Surley phalanx will chew them up
So the Phalanx is of course impressive, but a. given its range it makes it difficult to see how it would fend of lets say 20 incoming boats at once (because they would be already quite close until the phalanx can engage it, making a miss all the more deadly/consequential), b. most phalanx seem to have an issue with the limited rounds and max bursts they can have at any given time.. now I'm no expert in this field, but from a look at the video below (fun to watch), you can see that while the phalanx chews up the boat, this was just -one- boat and not a 100% hit.. likely 100-200 rounds fired in this burst, half of which hit the water, and this was an easy target... now imagine 20 boats coming from multiple sides.. no way a Phalanx could take them out.. it would likely run out of ammo after 5-6 of those boats have been engaged
Also, there seems to be an issue with phalanx still engaging targets after they have been disabled, requiring likely a better AI system or human interaction (taking off the target), slowing it down too much/ introducing false positives (in which the target may not have been fully disabled and continues to approach, while you told the Phalanx to back off manually)..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx_CIWS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtPWMTTF6ac
Nice post 👍
Post a Comment