U.S. Marines Test Laser-Guided 2.75-Inch Rockets

By David Hughes/Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

The Army tested two Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) laser-guided rockets developed by BAE Systems by firing them from a Kiowa Warrior helicopter Dec. 13 as the weapon system is prepared for operational use.

The APKWS can be fired from any helicopter that can launch 2.75-inch rockets including the Kiowa Warrior, Cobra and Apache, according to Frank Wilson, vice president of precision targeting at BAE Systems in Nashua, N.H.

The U.S. Navy is slated to take over the lead of the APKWS program to speed the weapon into the field, but additional work is needed to complete airworthiness certification and qualify all of the weapon's components.

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Navy officials are asking Congress to find money to field the $10,000 rockets earlier than planned.

“I believe it could be fielded as soon as late 2009 if the money is there. The impact is immense. This offers precision guidance with low collateral damage. That is exactly what the warfighter needs,” said Michelle McBride, who leads the project for the Navy.



Cheap with pinpoint precision guidance.
hope it gets into wide service.
Good for killing snipers rather than the whole building.

Distributed Aperture Semi-Active Laser Seeker

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wiki link

The Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) is a derivative of combat-proven MK 90 Hydra 70mm unguided rocket employed by US fixed and rotary wing aircraft. The APKWS rocket features a semi-active laser guidance system which provides enhanced accuracy over existing unguided rockets. The APKWS will be able to achieve a direct hit on both moving and stationary targets.

This innovative weapon consists of General Dynamics' Hydra-70 70mm unguided rocket offering several warhead configuration and BAE System's Distributed Aperture Semi-Active Laser Seeker (DASALS).

more info

just some more info

[edit on 5-1-2008 by Jezza]

Finally!

When it goes into service US arsenal will finally have a CHEAP guided rocket, so let’s hope that the larger caliber will follow soon!

We’re obviously running out of expensive high tech stuff and the budgets are tightening up, so cheap solutions like these are already necessary.

Russians had a killer laser guided rocket in service since 1979, the massive S-25L.

In 1984 they upgraded it to S-25LD which gave it 10 km range, increased accuracy to 1.2 meters and is used by SU-25T.

APKWS will bring down cost of precision and will allow us to match the flexibility that Russians enjoyed for over 20 years.

that weapon looks deadly

i wouldnt wont to be fired upon by that

I wonder if this will replace all the unguided rockets....

Sometimes you just want supression and unguided rockets are quite good for that.

reply to post by Jezza


Looks like its going to die anyways. The army is making massive budget cuts and the APKWS is one of the weapons systems most directly and detrimentally affected by them.

3/5 down the page...do CTRL + F and type in "advanced".

www.military.com...

Here too

www.asafm.army.mil...

Its a shame really.

reply to post by BlackWidow23

Looks like its going to die anyways. The army is making massive budget cuts and the APKWS is one of the weapons systems most directly and detrimentally affected by them.

Crap. This always happens. As soon as something cheap and effective comes along they snip it.

Soviets specifically used their heavy S-25L against Afghans and Chechens in low cloud cover, which prevented accurate laser guided bomb placement.

SU-25s fired the rockets to accurately bust bunkers/fortifications from low altitudes.

APKWS would have been perfect CAS because you can slap it to anything with wings/rotors and as long as you got the target painted you got it made.

UAVs would have benefited from it the most.

I wonder if the results would have justified the R&D/Production costs.

IMHO the laser guided rocket's range wouldn't be outside the effective, accurate range of an unguided rocket with a potentially larger warhead. Of course thats all speculation however.

Also IMHO the Army should be putting more towards things like the MRM-KE to take out next gen tanks than spending millions of dollars on anti-terrorist rockets, five of which will be fired per month.

reply to post by BlackWidow23

IMHO the laser guided rocket's range wouldn't be outside the effective, accurate range of an unguided rocket with a potentially larger warhead. Of course thats all speculation however.

S-25LD has a range of 10K with various warhead start from 150 kilos all the way to 190 kilos, not including the dual 150+21 kilo tandem warhead. (bunker buster?)

That’s like dropping a bomb with out having to be at altitude.

Also IMHO the Army should be putting more towards things like the MRM-KE to take out next gen tanks than spending millions of dollars on anti-terrorist rockets, five of which will be fired per month.

We all seen youtube clips where extremely expensive Javelins are used to bust some clay hut or a building in Iraq.

Imagine a HUMVEE mounted APKWS pack, firing laser guided salvos for pinpoint accurate suppressing fire. No collateral damage, massive firepower (M2 would not even come close), and all is needed to deliver all that firepower is a guy with a laser designator.

It’s like having an A-10/Cobra/etc CAS type capability right on the roof of your own HUMVEE, and with first stage internal nav, non-LOS fire will be possible, so elevation fired rockets will then home in on the pre-coded laser signal painting a target on the other side of town.

It’s like a NLOS-LS but on the cheap.

reply to post by iskander


I stand corrected iskander. I agree that the humvee system would be great. I believe the british developed a system like what you are describing (starstreak or starscream or somesuch) that fired 3 small laser guided missiles capable of taking out anything from bunkers to aircraft.

reply to post by BlackWidow23

I agree that the humvee system would be great. I believe the british developed a system like what you are describing (starstreak or starscream or somesuch) that fired 3 small laser guided missiles capable of taking out anything from bunkers to aircraft.

No kidding? I got to lock into that one. My time is rather fluid these days so I’m not as updated as I used to be.

Can you save me some time and point me in the general direction for a good source?

I’ll appreciate it!

reply to post by iskander


I hadn't checked on it in a while and it turns out that the US Army is considering using it on the Apache.

www.army-technology.com...

The missile has a first stage to get it off the launcher, the second stage puts it hypersonic and the third stage consists of three, count 'em three small dart like missiles that plot their position and the position of the target on a laser grid, apparent thats how it navigates to the target. The three darts increase the chance of hitting the target to make up for the lack of proximity fuse.

While probably unable to pierce tanks its not hard to see these things taking out APCs and other light armor, especially at the speeds they move at. It has a delayed fuse to blow up and shred things with shrapnel from the INSIDE.

While probably too expensive to be used in the same way as the APKWS, I predict independently targeting missiles in an upgrade sometime within the next ten years.

I included a better pic just to show how radical this missile really is.

upload.wikimedia.org...