According to Raytheon, the Phalanx LPWS (Land Phalanx Weapon System), part of the Counter Rocket, Artillery, and Mortar (C-RAM) system, is a rapid-fire, computer-controlled, radar-guided gun that can detect and destroy incoming: aircraft, artillery, mortar rounds, and rockets in the air before they hit their intended land-based targets. 

As a self-contained package, the Phalanx automatically carries out functions usually performed by multiple systems: search, detection, threat evaluation, tracking, engagement and kill assessment.

Consisting of a radar-guided 20 mm Vulcan cannon mounted on a swiveling base, the Phalanx has been widely used by the US Army to protect bases. It defended the Green Zone and Camp Victory in Baghdad, and the British Army base in southern Iraq. In 2012, the LPWS  systems were deployed to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan.