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From: bxr307@csc.anu.oz
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Aegis vs. Dozen Missiles (was USS IOWA)
Message-ID: <1990Jun28.025720.18921@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 28 Jun 90 02:57:20 GMT
References: <1990Jun20.043246.17762@cbnews.att.com> <1990Jun20.232933.1779@cbnews.att.com> <1990Jun22.043119.27816@cbnews.att.com> <1990jun26.025008.15408@cbnews.att.com>
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From: bxr307@csc.anu.oz
Organization: Computer Services, Australian National University
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In article <1990Jun26.025008.15408@cbnews.att.com>, tek@CS.UCLA.EDU (Ted Kim (Random Dude)) writes:
> 
> 
> From: tek@CS.UCLA.EDU (Ted Kim (Random Dude))
> 
> In article <1990Jun22.043119.27816@cbnews.att.com> malloy@nprdc.navy.mil (Sean Malloy) writes:
>>Against a dozen missiles, even the twin-rail launchers can keep up --
>>the rate of fire is two missiles about every 30 seconds, so with both
>>launchers starting loaded, a Ticonderoga could fire twelve missiles in
>>1 minute -- quick enough to engage twelve missiles incoming
>>simultaneously at Mach 3, given normal radar horizons. 
> 
> The book USNI World_Naval_Weapon_Systems claims the Mk 26 launcher
> (the twin arm launcher on early Aegis ships) can launch a pair of
> missiles once every 10 seconds. In the same book, the ROF of the Mk 41
> VLS is pegged at 1 missile per second.

	Surely a better determinant of rate of fire of a missile launcher using
a semi-active guidance system that the Standard missile does is the number of
missiles that can be guided at the same time towards a target?  It might be
fine for you launcher to be able to fire missiles off wily-nily, however how
much good is that when only the first two or three are actually able to be
guided to their targets?   Added to that must be the problem of at what ranges
the engagements begin, because the longer the missile is in flight, the longer
it has to be guided and that cuts down the number of missiles that can be
launched in a single engagement. 
	I don't know how good the radars on the Aegis system are (and after 
the Iranian A300 episode I wonder even more) but I would doubt
if more than two or four missiles could have handled in one engagement at any
one time.  


Brian Ross