Circa 1983-1984 USS Ranger comes out of overhaul and has the THEN new CIWS installed. Close In Weapons System. For those that don't know that is the 20mm Vulcan cannon hard mounted to the ship in a pod that looks like R2-D2. Radar and manually controlled. To test the system an airplane flies by with a 5 mile long cable towing a drone. After the plane flies by the radar is activated and tracks the drone and fires.
So here we go....A-4 flies by, CIWS rotates and starts tracking the drone, the barrel assy is tacking up and down and the pod is rotating as the drone approaches the ship. Theres about 50 of us on a stantion above the CIWS to watch, all of a sudden...BBBRRRRPPP,
a few hundred rounds come flying out of CIWS, and instead of hitting the drone they hit the cable and sever it. The drone rolls to the left and slams into the side of the ship. When we pulled back into San Dog a couple days later there was a huge Hi-vis orange streak on the starboard side where the drone hit. Guess how quick the Bosun's Mates broke out their paint brushes????