BAE’s AGR-20A Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System is a guidance kit which transforms a standard 2.75-inch (70 mm) rocket into a precision weapon for use against soft or lightly armored targets. Because APKWS rockets are lightweight, low-cost, and modular, they have the flexibility to launch off nearly any ground vehicle, with necessary modifications, and can hit moving or stationary targets on the first shot with low collateral damage.
The APKWS laser-guided rocket is the U.S. Government’s only program of record for a 2.75-inch (70mm) laser-guided rocket. In fact, they’ve manufactured well over 35,000 in the five years of the program.
It has achieved over a 93% hit rate when fired from US Navy and Marine Corps rotary- and fixed-wing platforms in combat. It has also been deployed from Army and Air Force Aircraft.
Ground-launch capabilities provide warfighters with a precision strike capability with greater range and more lethality than small arms fire, to engage targets independently without close air support.
Its accuracy is achieved by the Distributed Aperture Semi-Active Laser Seeker (DASALS) seeker optics that deploy after the rocket is fired. The seekers are mounted at he leading edge of the rocket’s canards and work as one. This enables the rocket to see the entire field of regard, and lock onto laser-designated targets but doesn’t require a seeker in the warhead.
these things are super rad. They have been around for a few years and as a EOD tech this means less fired ordnance because of the higher hit rate which means less UXO to deal with.
Exactly. They’ve turned the two 2.75 7-shot pods of “dumb” rockets on the UH-1Y into a 14 rocket load of precision-guided munitions. With the range extension motors they can be fired from well outside the small arms range of the intended target. They’re like a mini-Hellfire for soft vehicles, bunkers, weapons emplacements, Iranian go-fast boats, etc.