The Navy and BAE Systems recently delivered the first international shipment of the Advanced Precision Kill Weapons System (APKWS) to Jordan, the service said Monday.
The Royal Jordanian Air Force plans to outfit its CASA CN-235 light gunship aircraft with the 110 APKWS units, Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) said in a news release.
APKWS is a laser-guided 2.75mm rocket that offers more precision than a conventional rocket at a lower price than the Hellfire missile. It can take out soft and lightly armed targets in confined environments, allowing troops to accurately strike objects such as vehicles without as much risk of collateral damage.
APKWS can be purchased at about a third of the cost of other laser-guided weapons, NAVAIR said.
International demand for the weapon is growing, said Capt. Al Mousseau, Direct and Time Sensitive Strike program manager (PMA-242). NAVAIR stated that 13 countries total have submitted formal letters of requests indicating their interest in the technology.
The United States has signed foreign military sales cases with the Royal Netherlands Air Force, the Iraq Ministry of Defense and the Tunisian Air Force, with deliveries slated for 2017, he said.
International sales could help drive down the unit cost of the weapon for the United States, but Mousseau could not comment on how much money the Defense Department will save on APKWS due to such deals.
“Based on the pending APKWS orders and the anticipated future procurements of our international partners, the PMA-242 program office is assessing multiple year flexible quantity procurement contract options. Any savings due to increased FMS quantities will be negotiated as part of that broader contract,” he told Defense Daily in a written statement.
Originally used by the Marine Corps on its AH-1 and UH-1 helicopters, the Navy began integrating the APKWS on its MH-60S and MH-60R Seahawks in 2014 and 2015, respectively. The Army in October bought a batch of the weapons for its AH-64 Apache helicopters, and the Air Force is looking into integrating it with A-10 and F-16 airplanes.