CIWS test fire

[tboesche]

OK, all these Navy stories have got me remeniscing.

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????

[jimlongley]

ROFL

A not uncommon happenstance, you would think the Navy would have figured out how to fix the problem by now. It's common for the radar to lock onto the frag burst instead of the target, as it is sometimes a larger radar signature.

The fire control computer has a little error built in for such shoots, so the drogue doesn't get shot all to pieces, just getting close enough is enough.

We fired a shoot with five inch guns in anti-aircraft mode, controlled by the radar and fire control computer. When the tow plane approached, the Fire Control Technician cranked in the necessary error IN THE WRONG DIRECTION!!

The first VT frag shell blew close to the target, and then the radar locked on to the burst, tracked in the direction of the offset, and fired again. Of course five inch guns, even six of them in three twin mounts, do not fire very fast, so as the bursts walked closer to the tow plane it became quite obvious to the persons observing that the problem was occurring, and manual intervention succeeded in averting the otherwise tragic consequence.

I just dearly love watching those CIWS fire - BUURRRPPPP! and it looks like a handful of gravel thrown at the water. We used to tow targets for fighter planes once in a while and when those Vulcan Voodoos came in for a pass there was ALWAYS a crush of sailors on the fantail trying to get pictures.

[Right2Carry]

As a Former CIWS Technician or FC to those of you familiar, I can say our towed drone was always hit. We always blew the hell out of it and we a had a block 0 mount. I have heard the stories about the system severing the drone from the cable but never witnessed it first hand.

[Tactical_Texan_CHL]

I went on a Tiger Cruise from Hawaii to San Diego on the Bonhomme Richard with my buddy who was a Marine on board at the time. They'd just finished a West Pac cruise. It was one of the most fun things I've ever done. They demonstrated the CIWS for us. MAN that thing was cool! You guys have some great stories. Thanks for sharing!