BAE Systems’ laser-guided Advanced Precision Kill Weapons System (APKWS) recorded its first-ever penetrating guided-rocket shots with a larger M282 warhead, according to a company statement.
Using inert M282 warheads with unmodified flight software, APKWS engaged six targets from airborne helicopters at range of 1.5 to four kilometers away. All six shots hit the target less than two meters from the laser spot. During two live warhead ground shots, APKWS rockets with M282 warheads penetrated a triple brick wall and an M114 armored personnel carrier, according to a statement.
John Watkins, director of Precision Guidance Solutions for BAE Systems, said in a phone interview recently the test was an opportunity for the company to show APKWS would be successful with a larger munition.
“We’ve already tested it with a couple of different types of warheads,” Watkins said. “This is just another test, on a bigger class warhead, to show the continued flexibility of the APKWS and its design.”
The M282 warhead, at 13.8 pounds, is 3.8 pounds heavier than previously tested warheads M151, M152 (both categorized High Explosive) and a M149 Flechette warhead, according to a company spokeswoman. Watkins said the M152 is a ship-board, Insensitive Munitions (IM)-compliant version of the M151. IM-compliant is a Navy term for a munition designed, in simple terms, to have its fuse burn out before igniting the warhead so it won’t explode on a ship or in a confined space.
Watkins also said BAE has not yet received a Full-Rate Production contract for APKWS, but he said the company expects to receive it “in the next month.” The company said in March it expected a FRP contract by May.
“We’re still building out the (Low-Rate Initial Production) units, those first thousand units, so the production line is still actively hot doing that,” Watkins said. “Then the production order will come here in the next month or so and then we’ll just continue running right into the next thousand, or however much they end up ordering.”
APKWS was shot for the first time in combat in March in Afghanistan from Textron [TXT]-subsidiary Bell Helicopter’s AH-1W and UH-1Y helicopters, according to a statement. The company fired its first APKWS from a fixed-wing aircraft, a Hawker Beechcraft-Lockheed Martin- [LMT] developed AT-6C light attack plane, in January, according to a statement.
The APKWS is a semi-active, laser-guided 2.75-inch rocket capable of being launched from any helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft using standard rocket launchers to shoot 2.75-inch rockets. APKWS is effective against sot and lightly-armored targets while causing minimal collateral damage, according to a statement.
The Navy is paying $28,500 each for the APKWS for the guidance section in LRIP. BAE has been APKWS prime contractor since 2006.