Counter-UAS tests demonstrate lower-cost capabilities, BAE Systems reports
NewsNovember 30, 2022
HUDSON, N.H. BAE Systems completed additional ground-to-air test firings to demonstrate the feasibility of 70-mm rockets guided by APKWS [advanced precision kill weapon system] guidance kits against Class-2 unmanned aerial systems (UASs), reporting going "five for five" against the UASs in its test shots.
During the recent demonstration in Arizona, five APKWS-guided counter-UAS rockets fired from a containerized weapons system destroyed all targets, including fast-moving UASs.
According to the BAE Systems announcement, the 70-mm rockets combine standard motors and warheads with APKWS guidance kits and proximity/point-detonation fuzes to destroy Class-2 UASs while remaining lower in cost.
APKWS-guided rockets can be aimed against a variety of soft and armored stationary and moving targets and are able to be fired by many different platforms -- jets, helicopters, trucks, boats, and weapons stations -- while stowed guidance kits protect seeker optics from adjacent rocket fire, unlike nose-mounted seeker optics.
