XBradTC

For decades, warships have carried mortar and rocket launched decoys to spoof anti-ship missiles. Some launch chaff (thin strips of highly radar reflective metalicized mylar) and some carry flares to defeat infra-red seekers. Usually these launchers are tied into a ship’s electronic warfare receivers. They’re also usually fixed tubes scattered about the ship.

Chemring has devised a trainable decoy launcher for use on Royal Navy ships, to better position any decoys based on the incoming vector of any particular threat. The really interesting thing about their Centurion launcher however, is that they’ve adapted it to fire a variety of munitions, including guided missiles, what appears to be the Javelin anti-tank missile, as a counter-swarm weapon.

With an effective range of about 2500 meters, the Javelin isn’t the best possible weapon. But it does have some things going for it. First, it’s a tried and true weapon with a very good service record. Second, it’s fairly cheap. Third, and perhaps most importantly, it’s a “fire and forget” weapon, that requires no further guidance from the launching ship after it’s left the tube. That means the ship can quickly cycle to the next target. And the key to defeating a swarm attack is rate of fire. You have to be able to service all targets in the time it takes the enemy to transit between your maximum range, and his maximum range.

Given that as of today, the LCS sails with no effective anti-swarm missile (well, a very limited number of RAM missiles are aboard), at this point, I’d be happy to see half a dozen Gunner’s Mates on the aft helo deck shooting the land-based version of Javelin. 

Ideally, we’d see a missile with a bigger warhead and a better range. But better something than nothing.

Via: Wired