The U.S. Navy has placed a $130 million order for Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) conversion kits. These kits turn an ordinary 70-millimeter unguided rocket into a laser-guided missile, and all it takes is the installation of a simple screw-on guidance kit. The initial order could lead to a larger one worth a total of $600 million.
The Navy's MH-60R and MH-60S Seahawk helicopters carry a variety of weapons, including Hellfire missiles and rockets. The Seahawks use this firepower to help the mother ship—typically a destroyer or cruiser—fend off small surface threats, particularly many small, fast ships trying to "swarm" the larger ship.
There's a problem with the Seahawks' armament, though. Each bird can carry four large Hellfire missiles or up to 19 unguided 70-millimeter rockets that are barrage-fired from a LAU-61 rocket launcher. A single 70-millimeter rocket may be enough to put a skiff full of terrorists out of commission, which means the rest of the rounds are wasted.
APKWS is a kit that converts existing rockets in the Navy's inventory into guided rockets in a matter of minutes. First, the warhead is unscrewed and set aside. Next, the APKWS section, which contains the guidance section and laser seekers, is screwed on in its place. The warhead is screwed back onto the APKWS section, resulting in a longer but now precision-guided missile. This video from BAE Systems shows the installation process, which needs only a pair of hands and a strap wrench.
Typically, laser-guided weapons have laser-detecting seekers in the nose. The Hydra rocket has its warhead in the nose, so the seekers had to go somewhere else. With APKWS, BAE placed four seekers in the missile steering fins behind the warhead. It's a novel approach that keeps costs down by retaining the existing rocket warhead. The cost per kit is $30,000 each.
Even better, the Navy's new smart rocket pods enable the helicopter crew to select specific rockets in the pod for individual, one at a time firing. BAE claims a 93 percent accuracy rate with APKWS. Now, instead of just killing a few small boats with unguided rockets, a Navy helicopter with a rocket pod full of APKWS could kill up to 17.
As Defensetech notes, the agreement is to "speed the delivery" of the technology not only to the Navy but also to the other branches of the Military. APKWS can also be used in the rocket pods of the Apache helicopter, the A-10 Warthog, AV-8V Harrier, F-16 Viper, basically any aircraft that uses 70-millimeter rockets. The result—making each rocket count—makes the aircraft carrying it much more deadly.
Source: Defensetech
Kyle Mizokami is a writer on defense and security issues and has been at Popular Mechanics since 2015. If it involves explosions or projectiles, he's generally in favor of it. Kyle’s articles have appeared at The Daily Beast, U.S. Naval Institute News, The Diplomat, Foreign Policy, Combat Aircraft Monthly, VICE News, and others. He lives in San Francisco.
