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It fires over 4,000 bullets per minute/ What is the special weapon that protects the American embassy in Baghdad?

2026-03-17 08:33:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

It fires over 4,000 bullets per minute/ What is the special weapon that protects

The US Embassy in Baghdad has defended its facility from incoming shells with a Gatling gun that has lit up the night sky with a fury of tracer rounds. The cutting edge of the C-RAM (Counter-Rocket, Artillery, Mortar) system is a 20mm Gatling gun capable of firing 4,500 rounds per minute.

It is paired with radars, sensors and communications modules and mounted on a 35-ton trailer, enabling mobility and the ability to quickly engage and destroy incoming targets, says a report for the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (MDAA).

According to manufacturer General Dynamics, the weapon's 20mm rounds are lightly armored and high-explosive for versatility in engaging air and ground targets at ranges of 2,000 meters. They also have a self-destruct mechanism in case the target is missed, so that the rounds do not cause unintended damage.

The system is a derivative of the US Navy's Phalanx Close-in Weapon System, a weapon considered the last line of defense for warships against incoming cruise missiles or surface targets that bypass a ship's long-range defenses.

The naval system made headlines in 2024 when the guided-missile destroyer Gravely used it to shoot down a Houthi rebel missile that came within a mile of the warship in the Red Sea. The land-based system has been used thousands of times to protect U.S. forward operating bases in Iraq and Afghanistan since its first deployment in Iraq in 2004. /CNA





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