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 C-RAMs Einsatz im Irak infographic
Grafik zeigt das Counter-Rocket Artillery Mortar Waffensystem.
GN40371DE

MILITÄR

C-RAMs Einsatz im Irak

By Duncan Mil

July 15, 2020 - Die Vereinigten Staaten haben ein C-RAM Flugabwehrsystem in ihrer Botschaft in Bagdads Grüner Zone installiert, um vor Eskalation von Raketenangriffen der vom Iran gestützten Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH) Milizen gerüstet zu sein.

Tensions between the United States and Iranian-led militias have been building for months since a U.S. drone strike killed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani on January 3. The attack also killed Abu Mehdi al-Muhandis, commander of the Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH) militia.

Following the deaths of Soleimani and Muhandis, an alliance of KH, Popular Mobilization Forces, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, and the Iraqi nationalist Shi’a cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, has vowed to force the U.S. to leave Iraq.

Iran’s militia proxies have been responsible for at least 25 rocket and mortar attacks on U.S. and U.S.-led coalition personnel since then. The U.S. Army responded by deploying Counter-Rocket, Artillery, Mortar (C-RAM) systems to Erbil and Ain al-Assad bases. An anonymous senior Iraqi security source confirmed to AFP that the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad tested a C-RAM system on July 4.

The system employs dual antennas to track targets. The primary radar continually scans for incoming threats and measures a potential target’s bearing, speed, and trajectory. Once that system confirms the incoming risk, the secondary targeting system takes over control of a six-barreled, 20mm Gatlin gun that can fire up to 75 rounds per second.

The C-RAM uses M940 MPT-SD (multi-purpose tracer, self-destroying) ammunition. The self-destroying feature prevents live ammunition from coming down on friendly areas and personnel. A single $5.4 million C-RAM system can reportedly defend a 1.2 square kilometre area from airborne threats with a 60 to 70 per cent shoot-down rate.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 15/07/2020; STORY: Graphic News
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