Counter Rocket, Artillery, and Mortar

Bravo Battery, 2nd Bn, 44th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, boresights a Counter Rocket, Artillery and Mortar (C-RAM) weapon as part of their normally scheduled system check at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. (Photo, Ben Santos, US Force Afghanistan public affairs)

Counter Rocket, Artillery, and Mortar, abbreviated C-RAM or Counter-RAM, is a system used to detect and/or destroy incoming artillery, rockets and mortar rounds in the air before they hit their ground targets, or simply provide early warning.

C-RAM is effectively a land version of weapons such as the Phalanx CIWS radar controlled rapid-fire gun for close in protection of vessels from missiles.

C-RAM is an initiative taken in response to an operational needs statement made by the Multinational Force Iraq (MNF-I). The directive arose in response to the increasing number of casualties caused by attacks using rockets, artillery, and mortars in Iraq. The land-based Phalanx B was subsequently deployed in Iraq in the summer of 2004. It protected the Green Zone and Camp Victory in Baghdad, Joint Base Balad near Balad, Iraq, and was also deployed by the British Army in southern Iraq.

Operational
  • Centurion: 20mm Phalanx Close-in weapon system, a land based variant of the US Navy's defense system;
  • Iron Dome: an Israeli missile system featuring multiple target tracking and self-guided missile interceptors. Due to the ongoing increase of its engagement range and new missile and interception improvements, plus Surface-to-air missile capability, it has developed into a fully-fledged air defense system. By November 2012, the system had intercepted over 400 rockets fired into Israel by Gaza Strip militants. Based on operational success, defense reporter Mark Thompson estimates that Iron Dome is currently the most effective and most tested counter missile system in existence.
In development or as yet undeployed
  • MANTIS: 35mm fully automated C-RAM system, produced by Rheinmetall based on Oerlikon's Skyshield and ordered by the German Army for use from 2011

Operators

  • US Army
    • United States Army Air Defense Artillery (ADA)
      • C/5-5 ADA (Intercept Battery) out of Fort Lewis.
      • 4-5 ADA (Sense and Warn Detachment) out of Fort Hood, Texas.
      • 3-3 ADA out of Fort Bliss Texas.
      • C/3-4 ADA (Intercept Battery) out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
      • 473rd (Sense and Warn Detachment) out of Columbia, Tennessee.
      • 2nd Battalion, 44th Air Defense Artillery Regiment (2-44 ADA) (Joint Intercept Battalion) out of Fort Campbell, KY
      • A/5-5 ADA (Intercept Battery) out of Fort Lewis.
      • HHB/5-5 ADA (JIB), Fort Lewis
      • Battery E, 1st Battalion, 44th Air Defense Artillery Regiment (E/1-44 ADA) out of Fort Bliss Texas
      • Task Force 1-174th (C-RAM), Cincinnati, Ohio
      • Task Force 1-204th (C-RAM), Newton, Mississippi
  • British Army
    • 16 Regiment Royal Artillery
  • Australian Army
    • 16th Air Land Regiment
  • Israeli Defence Forces
    • Currently deploying 5 Iron dome batteries

Source

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