Bill Knows the Mystery Sound

Michael Yon posts a video from Baghdad of the not-very-secret but sensitive C-RAM (Counter Rocket, Artillery, Mortar) gun system engaging an incoming round. Yon has apparently taken a few rounds himself for talking about C-RAM, a land-based adaptation of the naval Phalanx anti-missile gun, although open-source documents are available on the US Army and Raytheon's (pdf) sites. For more on its specialized self-destructing round, see GD-OTS (pdf).

Keys to the video:  first, the sound of the gun (variously compared to ripping linen or the after-effects of a Taco Bell binge) is followed by the image of a line of M940 tracer rounds in the air. Next, the rounds can be seen self-destructing, five seconds and 2300 feet downrange, with the sound reaching the recorder a couple of seconds later.

[Editor's note: I couldn't get the video to work on Yon's site, so here the audio, at least]

--Bill Sweetman

Comments

[Peter]

Maybe C-RAM would have been a better choice for the Israeli's to have picked, to deal with the with the Qassam and Katyusha rocket problem.

A strength of the Iron Dome system, was that it was to be integrated with the other Israeli anti missile systems
http://www.defense-update.com/newscast/0207/news/010207_iron_cap.htm

It is almost a reverse TROPHY debate.
According to Haaretz, it may be a long time before Iron Dome becomes operational and it may be too expensive to be effective.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/859292.html
"The Iron Dome system is based on a missile that intercepts Qassam rockets. The problem is that the technological obstacles facing such a system are tremendous, and it is doubtful whether they could be overcome at a reasonable cost. In about 20 seconds, the flight time of a Qassam, the system needs to identify the launch, track the rocket's trajectory, feed the data to the intercepting missile and then launch it. According to Rafael, the development cost of the system is estimated at NIS 1 billion, and the work will last at least 30 months. Lessons from past development of advanced systems suggest that in every case, the development costs were much higher than the original estimates.

But even if Rafael does not exceed the cost and development schedule, the fundamental concept of Iron Dome is unrealistic. The cost of an intercepting missile is supposed to be about $100,000, while the cost of a single Qassam is a handful of dollars. The Palestinians' victory will lie in the continued production of Qassam rockets, leading Israel to produce more and more missiles for Iron Dome. The Palestinians will therefore force us to invest hundreds of millions of shekels in missiles whose use is uncertain. The decision to invest such sums in developing a defense system against metal pipes manufactured in backyard workshops is therefore, at best, problematic"