Word: starkly
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...radars on the Stark should have detected the missiles after they left the Mirage. But for still unexplained reasons, they apparently did not. Thus no one on the ship was aware of the incoming warheads. The lapse would prove tragic. Despite the frigate's sophisticated gadgetry, the first word that she was under attack came in a most ancient seagoing manner: a lookout spotted the incoming "flying fish" skimming just 15 ft. above the water. Like Captain Ahab sighting Moby Dick, the sailor shouted a warning into his intercom to the bridge...
There was almost no time to react. The first Exocet would hit the Stark within ten seconds. To Brindel, that was not enough time to get the ship's Phalanx antimissile system switched from a manual to an automatic mode and into action...
After the Sheffield sinking, U.S. Navy brass insisted that newly developed defensive systems would protect the rapidly growing American fleet from the sea skimmers. The Stark disaster has not changed that view. Former Navy Secretary John Lehman points out that although the Sheffield was destroyed by a single Exocet, the Stark, with a more durable superstructure and redundant protective systems, was hit by two missiles and still "sailed home under its own steam." Moreover, since the U.S. frigate was blindsided by a supposedly friendly plane, its defensive systems were never tested. "This is basically a weird exception," says Michael MccGwire...
...Certainly the Stark, a lightly armed escort vessel, had an impressive array of aerial defenses. The ship's Mk 92 fire-control system can guide an antiaircraft missile to intercept incoming aircraft up to 90 miles away. Closer in, its Italian-made OTO gun can fire 3-in. antiaircraft shells at a rate of 90 a minute, dealing sequentially with as many as three incoming intruders at a range of up to twelve miles. Rockets that spray radar- attracting aluminum chaff can divert incoming missiles, and the frigate's electronic defenses can deceive attackers by producing fake radar images...
Like most U.S. warships, the Stark has a last-ditch weapon: the Phalanx, a six-barreled Gatling gun capable of firing 3,000 rounds a minute of uranium, 2 1/2 times as dense as steel, to create a wall of metal in front of the attacking missile. But the Phalanx system has its limitations: it operates only at close range and has difficulty tracking sea-skimming missiles amid the radar "clutter" caused by waves. Even under manual operation, the Stark's Phalanx system should have detected the incoming missiles, but the ship's only warning came just seconds before impact...