The participants question whether a 20 mm system intercepts a missile far enough away to prevent a damaging impact. Clarke compares the move towards larger defensive guns with the increase in anti-aircraft calibres during World War II. Cyclic goes further, disputing the adequacy of early Phalanx on the basis of live-fire tests he describes. He places it alongside RIM-7M and the later Rolling Airframe Missile, rather than treating it as the entire defensive system. A 1985 assessment of the Falklands experience is cited in support of RAM's development role. Their performance judgments rely on accounts of tests and a report that are not reproduced.
Notable Point · 2:05:41-2:08:27
Phalanx and the problem of intercepting too close to the ship
The debate connects defensive range to residual impact risk and the relationship between guns and point-defence missiles.