Close-in Weapon System - Missile Systems

Missile Systems

Missile systems do not have the same limitations as gun systems. Because of their greater range, a missile-CIWS can also be dual-used as a short-ranged area-defense anti-air weapon, eliminating the need for a second mount for this role.

After an inertial guidance phase, a CIWS missile relies on infra-red, passive radar/ESM or semi-active radar terminal guidance, or a combination of these. The ESM-mode is particularly useful since most long-range anti-ship missiles use radar to home in on their targets. Some systems allow the launch platform to send course-correction commands to the missile in the inertial guidance phase.

Examples include:

• 9K33 Osa (SA-N-4 Gecko) missile, used by the Russian Navy is stored and fired from TELARs(Transporter erector launcher and radar) on various Russian ships.
• 9K331 (SA-N-9 Gauntlet) missile, used by the Russian Navy, it is stored and fired from Vertical launching systems of various ships. It along with the Tor missile system is the first air-defense system designed from ground up to intercept precision guided munitions like the AGM-86 ALCM
• 9M311 (SA-N-11 Grisom) missile, used by the Russian and Chinese navies as part of the Kashtan CIWS gun-missile system.
• Barak 1, an Israeli point defence missile system also used by Indian Navy.
• Crotale-NG
• HQ-7 missile, a Chinese missile system, standard for all ships.
• RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile - jointly developed by the US and Germany it is used extensively on German warships and many American ones - SeaRam is a plan to mate the Phalanx sensor system with an 11 missile RAM launcher
• Sadral, using a version of the Mistral missile
• Sea-Sprint, using the ADATS missile
• Modernized Sea Wolf
• Sea Sparrow Block 1, Missile used by the Nimitz class carriers, and other USN ships, as a short to medium range anti-aircraft weapon.
  • Evolved Sea Sparrow missile, used aboard all Sea Sparrow-capable warships, plus other warships of the Netherlands, Canadian, Spanish, Japanese, Turkish and Australian navies.