This is America's C-RAM Weapon System (Brit Reacts) 😲

[@pyronuke4768]

The rate of fire on a 20mm M61 varies from mounting to mounting, but usually fires between 2000 to 6000 rounds per minute (33 to 100 per second)

[@Dr.HooWho]

It costs 400,000 to fire for 12 seconds

[@ronaldweasley6175]

that’s quite a bit of variation lol

[@ozoahameg3582]

@@ronaldweasley6175 the variation is due to either fire mode or updates the early ones was limited to 3000 but was easily pushed to 6000 soon the rate of fire is pre-emptively set depending on whats being targeted as (smaller and faster targets require faster RPM for maximum efficiency, large and slow targets can easily be hit multiple times so low RPM is enough to save cost)

[@christobelcoleslaw6214]

Remember, every shot you could see it fire at night..there were about 20 between them

[@christobelcoleslaw6214]

Tracers

[@obydude]

You should check out that weapon mounted on an A-10 Warthog, they say if you hear the buzz of a Warthog, your not the target.

[@demonslayer1242]

Brrrrrrt

[@pknuttarlott4934]

I was gonna say the same thing.

[@bujmoose3992]

The gun on the A-10 is a 30mm cannon. A much larger round meant to take out tanks. Most incoming threats to the ship don't have armor/skins anywhere near as thick as those on a tank.

[@ginadisbrow9324]

I've always loved and appreciated that joke!!🤣👍💪

[@matsv201]

Goalkeeper air defence system use the same gau8 gun as the a10...

[@SavepointR]

When you think about it, for it's purpose this system makes alot of sense, in order to even have a remote chance of destroying a missile while it's traveling thousands of miles per hour you would either need something amazingly accurate or such a high volley of fire with good accuracy, that the chances of hitting the target increase with each round expelled in the missiles general path.

[@Kizahd]

7:00 When I was a machinist I made those "stabilizing pedestals" for the IR array. Made of aluminum, 4 machined pieces welded together with several high grade plated bearing rings pressed into them.

[@ravex24]

I was in charge of two of the Navy versions on USS Decatur. Our rate of fire was 4500 rds a minute or 75 a second. It only holds 1550 rounds so you are quite limited on how much you engage and a good crew takes about 5 minutes to reload it.

[@brandoncrusen9160]

I heard that using them makes your brain small.

[@ravex24]

@@brandoncrusen9160 One needs to be pretty smart to operate and maintain these systems. Clearly you aren't cut out for the job.

[@firefox4206]

@@ravex24 don't worry to much about the assholes love and respect for you and your Service to America thanks

[@ravex24]

@@firefox4206 As you can see, I handle my own with them. Appreciate your thanks, though.

[@firefox4206]

@@ravex24 thanks and take care of yourself

[@dawiebotes9124]

The only thing scarier than that sound, is that sound coming from the sky lol

[@phobiaone306]

Just remember that for each "light" (tracer round) you see there is anywhere from 5 to 15 rounds shot between each of those. I am not sure what ratio they use, and it could be even higher due to the rate of fire that gun has.

[@exorikk]

This is the part that always makes my head spin.

[@akakscase]

At most every 5th round. Average is every 10th. From the videos and the tightness of the rounds I would say it’s every 5th or 6th round.

[@robertharris6092]

Thats only on the CIWS. On C-RAMs its every round is a tracer. So if its fired from the ground every bullet is a tracer.

[@pauld5265]

Normally but these systems used over land use self-destructing ammunition when the tracer burns out the round goes boom to minimize collateral damage to civilians. Thats why it has such short range. 20 mm cannon rounds taking out the locals can be bad for winning hearts and minds. And makes it even more mind blowing to watch 🙂

[@ArcticTron]

If you're interested in more US Military related stuff I actually recommend both Real Engineering as a whole (they don't just do military stuff btw), and their video on the A-10 Thunderbolt 2 "The Insane Engineering of the A-10 Warthog."

[@ChupacabraNinja]

I agree. I love the Warthog and it would be awesome to see his reaction to it

[@tj_2701]

They have a good one on the SR-71 BlackBird as well, I don't remember if he has seen them or not tbh.

[@ArcticTron]

@@tj_2701 No he hasn't seen it, nor any video from Real Engineering.

[@axolotlfeverdream]

Thank you for you videos! They are a good daily distraction from my work, and are always enjoyable!

[@MrDPS1]

same, Definitely! Haha

[@gregweatherup9596]

If you’re familiar with the show The Expanse, this is the same idea as that shows “Point Defense Cannons” or PDCs.

[@theblackbear211]

I laugh when the bean counters start to whinge about the cost of ammunition - If you spend $50,000 shooting down a missile and save a single soldier you are ahead of the game financially- because of the cost of death benefits and burial alone. I'm a veteran and I'm not belittling or making a joke about the cost/ value of a life - but even from a strictly dollars and cents evaluation, this thing saves money when lethal projectiles are incoming.

[@bujmoose3992]

How about the cost of the ship that the CIWS is protecting from an anti-ship missile?

[@theblackbear211]

@@bujmoose3992 Excellent point - to say nothing of the crew - I remember exactly what happened to the USS Stark in 1987 with its CIWS turned "off".

[@AsuriaMin]

@@theblackbear211 not to mention the time and money it takes to retrain a new soldier who will lack all the experience, talents, respect, specialization, and expertise.

[@theblackbear211]

@@AsuriaMin Absolutely. The expenses go on and on...

[@louiswillhauck5572]

War is a resource battle. You win by making their resources cost more than yours.

[@Gantzz321]

watch the clip at 2:50 you will see the gun track the plane but then stops because if it continued it would have cut the ships mask off, cutting key radar and radio equipment and some other gear the public still believes is sci-fy. Part of my job was installing these guns was calibrating them to not destroy the ship. (aka limit range in which it is safe to fire)

[@chrisserfass8635]

My friend from the Navy he was a Navy Seal he called C-RAM R2D2 with a hard on.

[@mrexists5400]

hooyah! we said the same thing on my ship! :P

[@chrisserfass8635]

@@mrexists5400 What Ship were you on?

[@sneakhyperion9297]

Somewhere, and A10 is looking down like a proud father

[@artistanthony1007]

There's alot of crazy weapons that have been developed, the PHASR is one of my favorites.

[@rich7447]

The latest version fires 75 rounds per second at 3.5oz per round (over 16lbs of projectiles per second).

[@angelaengle12]

Aliens: "haha, machine go brrr"

[@JR-ub2wt]

by the way when its shooting at night and you see the tracers, keep in mind only every 5 bullets is a tracer. So a lot more bullets are coming out than you can see

[@xGoodOldSmurfehx]

Basically Baghdad was meant to be shelled several times but the US embassy in the area prevented most of damage to the city IMO thats a very noble achievement for such a weapons system employed by a once-invader (in this context)

[@jarmamiephillips2132]

It brought back memories of hearing this on board the navy ship uss Kauffman it shot around 4500 rounds a minute of course I don't think it could hold that many rounds in CIWS

[@AnthonyBC93]

"Technologies aren't in any other Countries" Laughs in Japan

[@MichaelScheele]

We sell many of our weapons systems to our key allies. It helps with interoperability during joint operations.

[@Ottawajames]

this was popping up in my recommended too , weirdly. This system is exported to other countries and is fairly common on ships.

[@robertstutesman7764]

The CWIS uses depleted uranium rounds to penetrate ships and the CRAM uses Air burst rounds wich is the explosions you see at a set range, that is so the rounds don't fly off into unintended targets such as a town or village. It is capable of tracking the target then each round fired at the target and adjusting for impact. Once the target is hit and disinegrates it tracks all of that as well.. it's also SUPER loud and shakes the whole ship so I would imagine it vibrates the body on land.

[@1superloki]

Two things I recall from serving on the USS Belknap is that the CIWS is very maintenance intensive and that the rounds sre extremely expensive. At that time the vendor was General Dynamics.

[@fredericraymond2487]

On a ship, It was run at 3000 rounds per minutes when set to auto, and 1000 rounds per minutes when operated manually using the mounted thermal camera.

[@hewjbacca]

If you liked that look into the AC130 gunship, the gun on that plane requires 2 men to do nothing but shovel brass from their guns, placing it into a holding area, not to mention it has a howitzer mounted on it and a 40mm cannon on it as well, was very effective during the Vietnam War!!

[@d2ndborn]

I remember on all 3 ships I was stationed on, that they were very loud. Without warning I, jumped many times.

[@tankeater]

That's the sound of extremely large bullets ripping through the air at 60 rounds a second... Each barrel firing 10 rounds a second

[@Pecos1]

This C-RAM weapon system is called a CWIS (Sea Whizz) on Navy ships. Our nickname for it is R2-D2 with a hardon.

[@MacTX]

The stuff that gets shown off is stuff they want you to know they have. It's the stuff that's state secret and they're not showing off is what is more interesting.

[@Chualland]

You are only seeing every 5th round. The tracer round is a bullet covered in magnesium. The magnesium ignites when the round fires. It does heat of the barrel. By using multiple barrels it gives the barrel time to cool down between rounds. It lets the person firing the weapon to see where their rounds are flying.

[@EnDigoLazer]

Had these on Liberty Base Complex in Baghdad, Iraq to conduct point defense operations. It looks like they fire a laser beam but it's just the tracers every 5 rounds, that's how fast it fires. I've seen them take out several incoming rounds that would have surely caused us a lot of trouble and lives. Oh, yep that's Baghdad on Liberty Base connected to BIAP (Baghdad International Air Port). They are super awesome, oh look that's the LSA I was in during 2009-2010 called Dodge City North. We took the most incoming because we were closest to civilian populations in the city. It will be cool when we switch to high power lasers to do the same thing. They might be scary for you to watch in a video but we loved them in real life because they saved us from massive motor and rocket attacks. Typically one or two rounds will detonate on the ground before the system can react and take the rest out.

[@stephanietip]

And we have bullets that fire around corners.Now that's a feat

[@tj_2701]

You can find short clips of this in actual use protecting US assets/bases/embassies with ALERT ALERT blaring from load speakers while the threat is shot out of the sky. It's amazing to see it knowing that you are witnessing lives being saved.

[@tafan321]

Yeah, they fucking scared the shit outta you when sleeping

[@andrewlund6380]

I've personally seen these units knock out incoming fire. I've also been standing about 50ft away from one when it opens up. To say these are loud is a vast understatement.

[@tafan321]

@@andrewlund6380 Flight line at BIAP they had one next to the taxiway. Morning PT sand storm was there and you hear the C-130s engines but can't see it and then all of a sudden you see the C-Ram lock on to it and the operator had to quickly deactivate it lol

[@OldFloridaMan]

My CHU at VBC was across from one of these things (there as a civ in 2011). Slept through every one of them. Staff next door to me reported in on every accountability check after incoming with a “yeah, he’s still alive, we can hear him snoring.” Finally got to see one fire in Afghanistan a few years later.

[@ericbetts4359]

My unit fielded the very first C-RAM variant in Baghdad. After lots of networking issues, and changing the rounds, it turned out to be a pretty consistent system. It’s already being replaced by something much more efficient and effective.

[@ulisesurbina7184]

I also saw your reaction on the A-10 Thunderbolt (Warthog); While in Iraq and when we would call for air, that sound that of the Gatling gun, just going to town on the enemies, it's like angels singing

[@bthsr7113]

Oshkosh is based in Wisconsin, my home state. Their main plant is adjacent to the EAA grounds, which are the busiest airport in the world for one week. Or at least were.

[@kdrapertrucker]

They also offer a shore based Aegis defense system called Aegis ashore for fixed defense sites actually uses a building shaped like an Arleigh Burke deckhouse to mount the radar arrays.

[@kdrapertrucker]

The white fairing has 2 radars inside, one tracks the target, the other tracks the cannon shells, the computer moves the gun to merge the stream of shells with the target. The shells are fused to explode if they do not hit anything so that they are no danger to those on the ground.

[@corzahazard444]

The Avenger cannon on the A10 Warthog goes BRRRRRT at 1800 rounds per minute with 30mm rounds, the CRAM goes BRRRRRRRRRRRRRT at 4500 rounds per minute with 20mm rounds

[@ronaldmcboggled9855]

The CRAM truck is my EDC, just in case any terries try to get froggy..

[@attackonmars5198]

Just a quick look at those jets, it's just wow.. beautiful!

[@MichaelScheele]

Minor correction: the F/A- 18 is operated by the US Navy, not the US Air Force. Pretty much all US fighters regardless of branch use the M61 Vulcan cannon as its gun. Only the AV-8B, F-35, and A-10 are exceptions.

[@geico1975]

That's freaking awesome! LOL! Hell yeah! I can't imagine how hot those barrels get. Dang, and can you imagine the sound of being in war ya'll:) JEEZ! Loud scary chaos. Man, I've never been in war, but thinking about it, just the sound would be enough to scar someone.

[@dannydevito7000]

Goddamn imagine if you accidentally put your hand on the barrels after it stops firing. Sheesh.

[@geico1975]

@@dannydevito7000 LMAO! I think our hand and the barrel would be one in the same:)

[@nneverss]

Got woken up to the sound of one of these going off in Afghanistan during the middle of the night. One of the most surreal sounds ever. The rocket still hit the base but still...it was cool lol

[@tmakinthehouse]

I witnessed the Phalanx being tested on my US Navy ship in 1991. Up close. Blew my mind.

[@jimburg621]

I have heard it said, this weapon, when it fires, is like a machine, shooting out a line of metal, as if it where a track of train track, track.

[@tombanaski3251]

My best friend supported the naval version (CWIS) on the battleship Wisconsin in the Gulf War. Amazing weapons platform---he told me prior to the launch of the war he was "probably safer on the battleship there than I was living here"

[@bryonensminger7462]

It's simple that dome shaped blue thing on top is a radar that guides the guns rounds into the target

[@shyahisotalo7826]

The rate of fire is almost hard to comprehend. Tracer rounds are usually every 4th round on links so the rounds that glow have 3 rounds that you don't see that are ahead of and behind each glowing round you do see.

[@sirbiff10]

The Aircraft Carriers have a version of this called cwis I think is the acronym. I’ve heard stories where it locked on to a metal anklet of a passing bird and well the bird was uhh turned into blood mist.

[@WaywardVet]

It's humbling to experience. A decade ago, there was a test fire of 4 around the Baghdad airport, and we little grunts weren't told. These things were hundreds of meters away, but that buzzsaw sound got everyone's attention, and at night, the tracers just added to the dramatic effect. We felt quite safe taking off knowing that was protecting us.

[@johnmurkwater1064]

Yeah, they may be expensive to use... But just add up the cost of an aircraft carrier and all of the men on board... Billions on the aircraft carrier and between $350,000 to $500,000 per man with about 4-5,000 people on each carrier... And those are just the monetary costs. Systems like that are worth every penny in my book.

[@ratlips4363]

I love the reaction of the young when they see something as amazing as this, and to think its been around for 50 years!

[@gene8842]

Thats the CIWS (pronounced seawiz) aka the "CHRIST, IT WON'T SHOOT!" Some call it R2D2 also, but it is well known for not shooting until the last second and sometimes not at all. The rounds are only slightly smaller than a standard 8.4 oz redbull can.

[@P-M-869]

That stream of light you see during the night shots are tracer rounds with several other rounds between

[@3044Smike]

My brother in law is actually Gunnary Chief on one of the US flagships that has a "sea-whiz" basically this but slightly larger caliber for aircraft. When that shit fires it is TERRIFYING

[@vladdracul7810]

You cannot imagine how this thing sounds live. I was on the USS Wadsworth standing in the hanger right beneath it when it went off. It sounded like God had reached down and was ripping the ship I half. That is honestly the only way I can describe it.

[@BSGSV]

Plot Twist: This was invented to kill spiders.

[@christopherjon1245]

Dude…don’t tell the Brit’s military secrets! lol

[@Ozarks420]

Whats truly scary about those cannons, is the size of those rounds.

[@MZ-bl6wg]

I haven’t seen this video yet and I thought I’d seen them all, the fact they got Irans ballistic missiles interception on here is awesome! This system is epic!

[@savevsdeath]

I used tom love watching C-Ram live fires. Super cool; I miss the Navy sometimes.

[@MAL1GNANT]

Fun fact. Those red blinks? Every 5th round is one of those. Tracers.

[@johncollins6298]

Very Nice video....do more usa military videos

[@dane19991]

I was on a M163 in the late 80's.. it was so fun sitting in the gunners chair fire that think

[@magarthur3420]

I could be wrong, but I believe I read somewhere that the red you see is every *100th bullet*. Just to give you an idea of how much that gun is putting out.

[@blakeschmitz4049]

Every 5th is a tracer

[@lextek.]

There's an even bigger gun on the A-10 close air support plane. Both ground troops an pilots affectionately call it the Warthog. When troops are in trouble they call for "the Hog". When it shows up the enemies shit their pants. The ground troops love it. When the pilot fires the gun the force of hundreds of 30mm projectiles being fired actually slows the plane down significantly. As someone else noted, if you can hear the Hog, you ain't the target! kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y2O0p3iAfrB2hcU

[@seanc.cooper4669]

The bullets leave the gun 3 centimeters apart. Plows through 66 centimeters of your heavy steel tank armor in one 1 to 2 second burst. It may be old and horribly ugly but I had a poster of the A model fully loaded looking like a serious some sort of prehistoric insect.

[@pauljanetzke]

Now realize that those tracers are either 1 tracer every 5th or 10th round. That gives you an idea about how much lead just went downrange.

[@wthornton9526]

What’d he say, 60 year history for a Gatling gun? It’s the current chapter of the 160 year old system from the “US Civil War Between the States”. A hand-cranked rapid fire weapon in the very beginning of the era.

[@terrancebrown87]

11:34 upside down is hell. Some say it’s a bad omen I personally don’t care but I can’t help but see it.

[@hardtackbeans9790]

The rate of fire is 'Hella fast'. Probably around 4000 rounds a minute. Give or take a few thousand. It varies. There are several hundred CWIS & CRAM systems. C-RAM is available for export to some other countries.

[@blakeschmitz4049]

Each platform is different. They range between 2000-6000rpm usually.

[@hunteralbers1449]

My grand dad had a hand in designing the targeting system of the OG phalanx CIWS

[@markrixson7791]

Similar to what the A-10 Lightning II "Warthog" was built around

[@gregorymyers2065]

Also, between every tracer round there is 4 more bullets. The tracers show as red.

[@TugOwar]

what is at least as scary as all that lead fired toward a target is all that lead raining back down to earth... sheesh!

[@lvlndco]

I think that's an older video, there are others out with ones upgraded to include 6 air to air missiles. The latest addition being tested also includes energy beam weapons.

[@UPsideDOWNworld321]

them blowing up after being shot is how they disable the missles they have a set range or it can be controlled not sure on those

[@lucya9162]

Missed your videos Lav!

[@backoff3477]

it's awesome to see in person but not many people understand how loud the CRAM is.

[@akakscase]

To give you an idea of the actual fire rate, at most every 5th round is a tracer (the ones you can see in the dark). More than that would overheat the barrels rapidly and reduce the accuracy and effectiveness of the weapon platform.

[@artistjoh]

C-RAM are operated by US, UK, and Australia, but Germany, Israel, Italy, and China all have their own local variants.

[@jessecardenas6971]

from what I remember, every 5th bullet has a tracer round.

[@ChupacabraNinja]

I would love to see your reaction to the A-10 Warthog.

[@andrewreynolds912]

As a sci fi nerd one thing I can tell you about good news and down side is that laser weapons won't be replacing gatling guns due to many low cost simple ways to counter lasers like simply ultra white paint can reflect the lasers beam which is important because lasers kill and destroy their targets by heating them up with the laser or you can use mirrors, ablative cooling, sharp and sloped surfaces like a stealth missiles or that of slope aromor to reduce its affectiveness, rolling the missile, composites, etc so even if you do this the laser could still destroy them but it would be much harder and take far more time and energy to kill and destroy them hence is why guns will always still be needed to do hard kills on targets and incoming rounds, the next sci fi irl real tech are CTA or cased telescope ammunition guns and ETC or electro-thermal chemical guns which accelerates the rounds up to that of a railgun and they could be used in weapons like the gatling gun.

[@HalkerVeil]

The weakness of this is why they have the AN/SEQ-3 Laser Weapon System

[@thesarcasticliberal]

It's a really cool bit of tech, but it is HEAVY, particularly given the amount of ammo it burns through (keep in mind, only 1/4 bullets is a visible tracer). The ammo limitations they mention are leading some segments of the military to shift towards the Israeli Iron Dome, which has a very similar purpose, but a much longer range (45 miles), slightly higher interception rate (90%), and faster reload, at the cost of being reliant on interceptors rather than ammunition (higher tech and higher transport/storage requirements). I wouldn't be surprised if many military sites developed a hybrid system, with missile-based Iron Dome modules for intermediate-range threats, and gun-based C-Ram systems as a backup for close-in threats that potentially evade interception (90% effective still means that 10% get through). This is particularly likely given that Raytheon also has the contract to manufacture the Iron Dome interceptors, so most of the system can remain on one supply chain (with the exception of the Iron Dome launch controllers, which are made by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems). This sort of "weapon" is really good, particularly because it is purely defensive. It can actually make mass-casualties less likely, as it removes much of the risk from incoming attacks, and gives more flexibility in dealing with them at the source. If you have dozens, or hundreds, of rockets incoming and no defensive weapons, you have very limited time to destroy the threat and thus can't prioritize reducing collateral damage around the threat. However, with this sort of defensive weapon, you have more time to neutralize the threat with more precise weapons, that reduce or eliminate collateral damage. kzbin.info/www/bejne/lZa2i5R5fb11jKM

[@queenbutterfly7519]

7:43 Luka's reaction is priceless 🤣

[@NordGermanicEmpire]

it showed up on your strem because I watch the video like a couple days ago.

[@crgomarro]

Dude and that's only the stuff they released to the public. DARPA is supposedly 25 years ahead in their research. It's crazy to think about. Cheers from Boston!

[@jreyman]

Those night shots are reveal the tracer rounds located every 5 rounds fired at a rate of at least 2000 rounds per second, and up to 6000 rounds per second. If B = Bullet , and T = Tracer, then (BBBBTBBBBTBBBBTBBBBT....repeat) is actually what you're seeing fired into the night sky.

[@philchurch1115]

Phil Church here and I was in the Navy 1982 to 1988 and the nick name we gave it was R2D2 and when it was firing anything in its way was gone in seconds .. check our A-10 wart hog videos because it's a flying gun ,

[@AlexisLopez-pb8ms]

10 to 15 million dollars each. Department of Defense “ok we’ll only order 1,000 of these”. Yes, that’s how our military spends money😂

[@danielmoore1232]

I want one of those on my house man.

[@michaelschemlab]

The C-RAM fires are a rate of 4,500 rounds per minute (75 rounds a second)

[@everypitchcounts4875]

Check out iron dome weapons system and the MQ-8 Fire Scout

[@JerseyMikeP]

You should look at the X-15, in 1967 it achieved Mach 6.7 , 4,520 mph.

[@blankmike4613]

LOVE it! Now you know where the money goes, and it's not toilet seats. :)

[@ShahggTF2]

this thing sounds like my PC when I boot up minecraft with shaders.

[@MZ-bl6wg]

Alllllllllll the amazing info and the video didn’t list how many thousand rounds a minute it fires which is UNREAL!