This is quiet strange. Do you think that a 4.5" gun can acomplish anti-missile duties? How would it be aimed? In the Phalanx system the radar continuosly track the incoming missile as well as the stream of bullets to align the barrel. A 4.5" gun is not a rapid fire gun (I mean more than 1000 rpm). The computer would need to provide a fire solution based on the speed of the missile, its course and altitude, and then point the gun, accounting for flight time to an interception point, based on the muzzle velocity of the gun. Don´t think it was possible then, not even now. The missile is 50 cm across, far less than the natural dispersion of the gun. I don´t buy the missile was destroyed that way.the exocet was destroyed by 4.5-inch gun fire from HMS Avenger
Are you aware of the thereabouts of the carrier from May 30th to her entering port? What about an alleged reduction in the Harrier CAP after the same day?
Not Robert, she was taken by one or two Exocets, putting her on fire, much like Sheffield.The Atlantic Conveyor was of course sunk by Skyhawks