BAE Systems to build kits to turn rockets into low-cost laser-guided precision munitions in $1.7 billion deal

Summary points:

• BAE Systems will deliver as many as 55,000 APKWS II laser-guided rocket kits over six years for U.S. and allied forces.
• APKWS kit transforms standard 2.75-inch rockets into low-cost, laser-guided munitions with a 93 percent hit rate for surgically striking soft and lightly armored targets.
• APKWS II is compatible with helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft, and unmanned systems such as the F/A-18, A-10, AH-64, and MQ-8 Fire Scout.

PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md. – military aerial warfare experts are bulking-up on laser-guided rockets that enable fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to attack lightly armored vehicles, bunkers, field fortifications, cars, and trucks.

Officials of the Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., announced a $1.7 billion six-year contract in late August to the BAE Systems Electronic Systems segment in Hudson, N.H., to build as many as 55,000 WGU-59/B Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System II laser-guided rocket kits. These APKWS II semi-active laser-guided precision weapons are for the U.S. Navy, Army, and allies.

APKWS is an add-on kit that turns a standard unguided 2.75-inch 70 millimeter rocket into a precision laser-guided munition to give warfighters a low-cost surgical strike capability, BAE Systems officials say. Typically the kit fits on the Hydra 70 fin-stabilized unguided air-to-ground rocket.

Semi-active laser guidance

APKWS uses semi-active laser guidance technology to strike soft and lightly armored targets in confined areas, it has provided the U.S. Marine Corps with a 93 percent hit rate. It is smaller and less expensive than comparable laser-guided missiles like the AGM-114 Hellfire.

The APKWS laser-guided precision munitions can fit aboard U.S. UH-1Y, AH-1W, and AH-1Z AH-64, and MH-60R/S helicopters, as well as the F-16, F/A-18, AV-8B, A-10, and OA-1K Skyraider II fixed-wing combat aircraft.

In the future the APKWS is under consideration for the Navy MQ-8 Fire Scout uncrewed helicopter, OH-58 helicopter, V-22 tiltrotor, AH-6 Little Bird helicopter, and the A-29 Super Tucano ground-attack aircraft.

Tell me more about semi-active laser munition guidance ...

• Semi-active laser guidance is for precision-guided munitions like rockets, bombs, missiles, or artillery shells, in which a target is laser-illuminated by an external source, and the munition homes in on the reflected laser energy to strike the target. A laser designator "paints" the target with a coded laser beam, the munition launches toward the general area of the target, a seeker head in the munition detects the reflected laser energy from the target, and tracks this reflection and adjusts its flight path to guide itself to the target.

The APKWS-equipped rocket is slightly longer than six feet, 2.75 inches in diameter, has a wingspan of 9.55 inches, and weighs 32 pounds. It uses the Hydra 70 impact-detonating, air-burst, or standoff warheads. The laser munition can hit targets as far away as three miles, flies at speeds of 2,200 miles per hour, and costs $30,000 apiece.

On this order BAE Systems will do the work in Hudson, N.H.; Whippany, N.J. (22%); Plymouth, England; Austin, Texas; Bristol, Pa.; Rochester, N.Y.; Kitchener, Ontario.; Westminster, Md. (2%); Ronan, Mont. (2%); Topsfield, Ipswich, and Boston, Mass.; Pomfret and Danbury, Conn.; Anaheim and Carson, Calif.; Tempe, Ariz.; and Centennial, Colo., and should be finished by December 2031.

For more information contact BAE Systems Electronic Systems online at www.baesystems.com/en-us/product/apkws, or Naval Air Systems Command at www.navair.navy.mil.