Raytheon and Oshkosh Truck Corporation have unveiled a truck-mounted prototype of the Centurion Weapon System: a land-based version of its radar-guided 20 mm Phalanx gun. While the system is not yet ready for deployment, integrating the Phalanx gun on a truck offers the potential to create a more mobile, more flexible -and more marketable - version of the counter-rocket and mortar (C-RAM) system. John Eagles, a Raytheon spokesman, told Jane's: "The mobile Centurion is the next iteration of the Centurion programme. ... It's a clearly proven system that works and does what the commander wants. But what the commander also wants more of is mobility." The US military developed land-based Phalanx in response to an urgent operational need to protect forward operating bases from indirect fire, and C-RAM systems have been credited with shooting down around 100 rockets and mortars in theatre. Currently fielded C-RAM systems, however, are set up on trailers that cannot be rapidly moved.
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