In a dazzling display of naval defense, a US Navy destroyer, the USS Gravely, took down an incoming Houthi missile fired over the Red Sea with its advanced Phalanx Close-In Weapon System. This marked the very first utilization of the Phalanx system in this ongoing conflict. It is of fundamental importance to the Navy as its “last line of defense.”
The incident went down Tuesday night when the automated Phalanx system, equipped with Gatling guns capable of firing up to 4,500 20-millimeter rounds per minute, engaged a cruise missile that had closed to within one mile of the ship. US officials say the missile was mere seconds from impact when it was neutralized.
Raytheon, the manufacturer of Phalanx, describes it as a “rapid-fire, computer-controlled, radar-guided gun that can defeat anti-ship missiles and other close-in threats on land and at sea.” Ordinarily, American warships are defended by longer-range defenses including the Standard SM-2, Standard SM-6, and Evolved Sea Sparrow missiles, which would attack targets 8 miles out or farther. In this case, none of those were fired, officials said, for reasons that have not been disclosed.
Tom Karako of the Center for Strategic and International Studies Missile Defense Project responded that the missile is too close to the warship, and a distance of 1 mile would be “not very long in terms of time” if going at a pretty good clip.
A former US Navy captain, Carl Schuster, has done an estimate: a Houthi missile was flying at about 600 miles per hour and was four seconds from impact when the Phalanx system lit up with a two-to-three-second burst of machine gun fire. According to Schuster, though the missile had been obliterated, there remained the danger of parts of the weapon hitting the ship. “The missiles don’t vaporize when destroyed; they emit thousands of fragments and parts of the missile frame,” he explained.
Introduced in 1980, the Phalanx system is today standard on all US Navy surface ships and in service with at least 24 US allies. Though limited in its altitude reach, which might not be effective against ballistic missiles, the Phalanx still represents a crucial part of naval defense.
The latest engagement by the USS Gravely comes amidst a larger pattern of attacks by the Houthis against commercial shipping and warships in the Red Sea, which they say are retaliatory actions against Israel for its war in Gaza. Following the Gravely incident, a second U.S. destroyer, the USS Carney, intercepted additional anti-ship missiles and drones. Moreover, US forces destroyed a Houthi drone over the Gulf of Aden and another surface drone in the Red Sea.
Among these incidents are several attacks by Iranian proxy groups in Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq, which have taken place since the Gaza conflict erupted last October. Last Sunday was the deadliest attack for the US military when a drone strike on a US outpost in Jordan killed three American soldiers. The US attributes this attack to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a militant umbrella group.
President Joe Biden stated that a decision has been reached regarding how the US will respond to these attacks, but details remain under wraps. While options will also include strikes against Iranian assets in the region, direct action within Iran itself is less likely, as the US is going to shy away from direct war with Tehran. US officials have cited indications that Iran is increasingly worried about the reach of its proxies’ actions and the possibility of making a global economic disruption as well as a confrontation.
Another important deal, worth $570 million, which Raytheon has secured, concerns upgrading the Phalanx CIWS for the Royal Canadian Navy, aimed at improving the system’s radar and guaranteeing operational life until 2037. This contract reflects, once more, the value of the Phalanx system in modern naval defense.
As tensions further simmer in the Red Sea and beyond, so does the Phalanx CIWS as a critical safeguard for naval vessels facing an array of evolving threats.