Do you have evidence that the RN uses DU? As far as I know, they don’t. The British Army does, in its Challenger tank APFSDS ammo. So does the US Army in tank and Bradley MICV ammo, the USAF (in A-10 ammo) and the USMC (in the GAU-12/U ammo in the AV-8B). And if RN personnel were exposed to the resulting dust, through examining knocked-out tanks for instance, then their health could be at risk.

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion forum

Mr. Tony Williams,

I think there are some articles on the MoD, U.K. website that stipulate the fact about DU cartridges used in RN during Iraq War and other occasions.

Here are a few hits returned by the search engine embedded in MoD website using the key word “DU phalanx”.

http://www.mod.uk/linked_files/gulf_du_safety_guidance.pdf

Still, I think the following oppinion of one article is quite reasonable:
” It should be noted that, although radioactive and toxic particulate material would be created by any DU-based ammunition impacting on a hard surface, much less would be produced by the DU-based ammunition used by the Phalanx CIWS (see note 2) than the larger calibre (120mm) DU-based ammunition used by UK tanks. This is because the ammunition used by Phalanx is likely to be used against more lightweight targets than tank ammunition.
”

Also, some source expects the 20mm DU ammunition for phalanx will become out of service in the near future. 🙂
“The only other UK, DU based ammunition is the PHALANX round used in maritime close-in point defence systems. Ships at sea fire limited numbers of this ammunition for training and weapons proving, but this is expected to cease within the next two years when existing stocks become exhausted.
“
http://www.mod.uk/issues/depleted_uranium/du_research/military.htm

Best regards,

Reallight

What does ‘has been’ mean? That it is now, or that it used to be?

When Phalanx was adopted by the RN (in a hurry, after the Falklands) DU APDS was the standard warshot used in this weapon. However, in around the late 1980s the USN abandoned the DU projectiles for tungsten alloy ones.

AFAIK the UK buys this ammo from the US, so it would make sense that the RN used DU to start with, but probably not now.

After the Iraq War, many published reprots of RN studies the negative effect of DU ammunition to personnels. More and more people in RN are now against using DU charges.

So, it is likely that DU charges of RN may not serve long in the future.

You might try http://www.defense-aerospace.com – they provide industrial contract news.

TW

Thanks for the suggestion, Mr. Williams.

I have checked this website, and done a couple of searches in it. Frankly speaking, it’s not so good as I expected. Actually, only the search of “Phalanx” feed back some hits, and all those hit are quite like what I had found from Raytheon News Release website. And, all those articles in that website are not free.

So, I have to keep looking.

Thanks again for your continuous concern and help.

Best Regards, 😮

Thanks Tony,

This abbreviation realy kills me. 😮

Mr. Tony Williams, I know you are really a master in this domain, and I have read quite a lot of materials you posted on various forums. I truely admire your profound knowledge.

I hereby sincerely hope that you may kindly give me some advice on this issue concerning CIWS price. :rolleyes:

best regards,

Thanks, BuffPuff!
I’ve also found a contract news-release of Boeing in 2000, in which 181 25mm M242 chain guns were sold to Canadian Army for $20 million. So, in 2000, the average price of M242 was about $110,000 I think.

BTW: who are “mfrs”? Why would they know about these things?Can you tell me more about mfrs? Please.

RAM is superb!

You see, in the latest version of Phalanx, RAM has replaced the Gatling gun once for all!

U.S. Navy trusts it.

Don’t get so excited, Dagestan still may get Palma, it’s scheduled to be operational only in 2007, anything can happen.
Currently the ships which have been nominated as possibles for Palma are the new corvette 20380 and the new frigate 22350.
There is no doubt, that currently the most advanced and potent missile/gun CIWS is Kashtan/KashtanM. Palma is a cheaper sidekick which can be installed in smaller ships, an opt-electronic Kashtan without reloads 😎

Snake65, you’re great!

I have been wondering for the actual nominees of Palma for quite some time. Your clue about the “new corvette 20380 and the new frigate 22350” are totally fresh to me. Could you kindly point out some more details about this two projects? Some photos would be even better.

I agree that Kashtan/Kashtan-M1 are more effective CIWS given their awesome missiles. But, the Kashtan could be very expensive too.

There’s no doubt that you know pretty much about Russia CIWS, so please tell us something about the price of Kashtan/Kashtan-M1 and Palma.

Just give us some idea, will you? Thanks! 🙂

Thanks to Blackcat, here are some photos about a model of Palma in some exhibition.

Anyone have some new photos about Palma? (especially palma in service)