#shorts #cram #CounterRocketArtilleryMortar

This barrage of deadly bullets comes from CRAM. It is a landbased Phalanx Weapon System developed by Raytheon to Counter Rocket, Artillery, and Mortar shells. It uses a multitude of advanced sensors and systems such as KuBand radar, forward looking infrared, sophisticated thermal imaging and computer systems to automatically search, track, make kill assessment, prioritize, and lock a target in only 5 seconds. It has a 6barrel, 20 mm Vulcan Gatling cannon that fires at 4,500 rounds per minute to destroy incoming targets within a 1000meter effective range.

CRAM can be mounted on a trailer or the rearside of the Oshkosh truck for mobility. The first CRAM was deployed in Baghdad in 2010 in order to protect the Green Zone which is where the American embassy resides. It could successfully destroy 70 to 80% of the incoming rockets and mortars, thereby proving its capacity as a defensive system.

Each CRAM costs 10 to 15 million dollars, but with such massive firing rate, it comes at an operational cost of 30 to 60 thousand dollars to engage a single target.