The C-RAM, operated by the U.S. Army at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, has been used to take out numerous rockets.
Deep in the countryside, Taliban fighters take aim at U.S. military bases with indirect fire: in particular, cheap and ubiquitous Chinese-made 107mm rockets. The U.S. Army's answer: A series of massive six-barreled, 20mm Gatlin guns that spew up to 75 rounds per second.
The M61 Vulcan Cannon is part of what is known as the C-RAM in the Army, short for Counter Rocket, Artillery and Mortar System. It has been used successfully to take out numerous rockets, with a fireball typically lighting up the sky as bright tracer rounds from the gun find their target.
The C-RAMs here are run by Task Force Iron Shield, a group of soldiers with the Florida National Guard's 1st Battalion, 265th Air Defense Artillery Regiment. The weapon was initially designed for use on Navy ships decades ago and known as Phalanx, but the Army eventually adopted it for use in Iraq. It made its way to Bagram closer to 2012.
The system also includes a robust suite of radar and Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) cameras to detect incoming fire and alert people on base that a round is on the way. That typically provides a moment or two for service members and contractors on base to take cover both from the first round any subsequent rockets fired in succession, said Lt. Col. Michael Powers, the task force commander.
"An event from start to finish is very, very quick," he said.
Rocket attacks at Bagram have historically been launched about every other day. That has dwindled some in recent months, but the task force also is proud that no one has been injured or killed on Bagram by a rocket since they arrived early this summer. That last incident occurred June 8, when Krissie Davis, 54, a civilian working for the Pentagon, was killed in an attack.
There are at least 10 C-RAM guns across Bagram Airfield, blanketing it in coverage from direct fire, Powers said. The soldiers' civilian backgrounds have come in handy in other ways, too. Sent to a small nearby installation, Forward Operating Base Dahlke, to work on C-RAM guns there, they fixed several all-terrain vehicles that had been in disrepair there for months, Powers said. They are civilian motorcycle mechanics when not deployed.
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