BAE Systems is completing Low-Rate Initial Production (LRIP) on its Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) and expects to be awarded a Full-Rate Production (FRP) contract “in a couple months,” according to a company executive.

“We are finishing up LRIP build and, in 2012, we’ll be awarded Full-Rate Production,” John Watkins, BAE’s director of precision guided solutions, said in a telephone interview yesterday. “We expect that contract in a couple months.”

The APKWS, the semi-active laser guided version of the United States military’s Hydra rocket, achieved a first shot success from a fixed-wing aircraft on Jan. 18 at Eglin AFB, Fla., according to Watkins. The APKWS hit within inches of the center of its laser spot target after it was fired off a Hawker Beechcraft AT-6C from a range of three miles, according to a company statement.

During the testing, BAE personnel were able to quickly convert unguided Hydras supplied by the Air Force into APKWS guided munitions.

“Basically, the Hydra rocket, in unguided form, has these components: rocket motor, solid fuel motor and warhead,” Roy Rumbaugh, BAE’s program manager for the APKWS, said yesterday in a telephone interview. “What is done for the Navy is they get them in pieces and normally they attach the warhead to the rocket, attach it to the launcher and go. The difference here is the precision guidance section. You put it in between the warhead, strap it down and you are done.”

“You literally screw this together like an electric toothbrush,” Rumbaugh added.

This successful test, from assembling two test rounds, loading into the aircraft launchers, flying the mission and completing the successful shot, was accomplished in three hours.

“That’s the very first time it was integrated on this aircraft and when it was shot, that’s pretty extraordinary,” Rumbaugh said.

Immediately before the guided rocket shot, an unguided round in the same launcher was fired to demonstrate the robust APKWS advantage of its sealed, mid-body design to withstand the real-world environment of adjacent rocket firings, according to a statement.

Watkins said the Navy is paying $28,500 each for the APKWS for this guidance section in LRIP.