USS Independence & SeaRAM

USS Independence LCS-2

It's Fleet Week at the Portland Rose Festival.

SeaRAM Close In Weapons System

Ross paid a visit to the USS Independence and came away with this photo of the SeaRAM Close-In-Weapons-System. It looks like they took a Phalanx system and replaced the gun with a big box of rockets.


SeaRAM Anti-Ship Missile Defense System [beware annoying upbeat music]
The SeaRAM is supposed to be able to shoot down incoming anti-ship missiles before they hit the ship, the same thing the Phalanx system was supposed to do. I would think using missiles instead of bullets should give you better range. You might be able to reach out a couple of miles with bullets, but missiles might give you ten times that. You are limited by the number of missiles you have, but the Phalanx has a limited supply of ammunition. It's large, but it's still limited, and it uses it at a prodigious rate.