The New Seekers

WEAPON SYSTEMS

Defence Helicopter | January/February 2015 | Volume 34 Number 1 www.rotorhub.com14

The new seekersUnguided air-launched weapons have

become a rarity in recent years, with many ‘dumb bombs’ being retrofitted with guidance kits to become smart munitions.

Probably the most notable example of this for fixed-wing platforms takes the form of guidance kits for Mk 80 series general-purpose bombs, turning them into either a laser-guided Paveway or INS/GPS-guided Joint Direct Attack Munition.

For rotary-wing platforms, a similar transformation is taking place to the commonly

used, but unguided, 70mm (2.75in) Hydra rocket. With the addition of a semi-active laser seeker, these rockets are becoming a precision tool that can accurately hit a target within one metre of a laser spot. Compare this with the unguided Hydra, which can sometimes impact 50m away from its aiming point.

The USN and USMC are currently fielding a new laser guidance kit for the Hydra 70 known as the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS), manufactured by BAE Systems. This is

not a full weapon, rather a mid-body control and guidance package that can be quickly inserted between the Hydra’s Mk 66 rocket motor and 10lb (4.5kg) M151 HE warhead. According to the manufacturer, the addition of the guidance kit does not affect the missile’s existing 8km range.

‘The unique piece of APKWS is that it is a mid-body design,’ said Dave Harrold, product line director for APKWS at BAE Systems. ‘The kit that we build is completely plug and play. If you unscrew the warhead from the rocket motor

With the addition of a seeker head, rockets are becoming precision tools for the battlefield. (Photo: Lockheed Martin)

Recent conflicts have identified a need for a lightweight, affordable precision weapon that can easily be integrated with in-service rotary-wing platforms. Grant Turnbull explores the world of guided rockets.

DH-01-15_p14-19_Guided_Rockets.indd 14 30/01/2015 14:21:56

WEAPON SYSTEMS

www.rotorhub.com Volume 34 Number 1 | January/February 2015 | Defence Helicopter 15

of a Hydra and then put our kit in the middle and screw it back together, you’ve created an APKWS.’

A sensor known as the Distributed Aperture Semi-Active Laser Seeker (DASALS) is the ‘underpinning technology’ for APKWS, according to Harrold. DASALS, in contrast to the nose-mounted seekers used on other guided rockets or missiles, employs four distributed seekers fitted to pop-out control fins. These provide a 40° instantaneous field of regard for precision engagements against moving and stationary targets.

NAVAL TAKEOVERBAE Systems’ design was chosen by the US Army in 2006, although budgetary pressure saw the USN take over the programme in 2008. By 2012, the system had achieved initial operational capability and was deployed to Afghanistan on the USMC’s main attack helicopter, the Bell AH-1W Super Cobra, and the service’s newest utility helicopter, the UH-1Y Venom.

Comments from the field have been positive since the weapon’s deployment,

noted Capt Al Mousseau, programme manager (PM) in the Direct and Time Sensitive Strike Weapons Program Office (PMA-242) at Naval Air Systems Command.

‘Our logistics community and my [integrated product team] leads stay engaged with their counterparts, both the aviators as well as the maintainers, and, for the most part, there’s been positive feedback,’ he said.

‘The value of an APKWS, the 2.75in-sized weapon, is that you do have a smaller warhead that allows you to minimise damage outside of your intended impact area, and it is low-cost,’ Mousseau explained. ‘You’re only shooting one precise weapon because you know it’s going to hit the intended target, as opposed to shooting maybe a battery of unguided rockets.’

APKWS is compatible with the Hydra’s M151 and M152 HE warheads, while combining it with the M282 multi-purpose penetrator is currently an unfunded USMC requirement. PMA-242 confirmed that it has no plans to integrate or qualify APKWS with the Hydra’s 6.3kg M255A1/M149 flechette warhead.

PMA-242 – part of the Program Executive Office Unmanned Aviation and Strike Weapons – currently supports the APKWS acquisition process for the US military. On 29 December 2014, the office signed a fourth full-rate production (FRP) contract with BAE Systems, worth $45 million, which will see the company deliver another 1,601 APKWS kits and complete work by next year.

To date, the USN has taken delivery of around 3,000 kits and ordered more than 6,000 from the manufacturer, with a value of approximately $184.6 million.

The original US Army requirement for a guided 70mm rocket was to utilise existing Hydra 70 parts, including warheads, rocket motors, fuses and launchers. This was to reduce costs associated with areas like training and logistics, and also to utilise the US military’s huge inventory of rockets – more than four million 2.75in rounds have been produced for the army’s Joint Attack Munition Systems (JAMS) Project Office since 1996.

In addition to USMC platforms, APKWS is already qualified to be fired from the USN’s

BAE Systems’ APKWS round has been fired from around a dozen platforms, the latest being the V-22 Osprey in November. (Photo: BAE Systems)


WEAPON SYSTEMS


MH-60S Seahawk helicopter. The latter aircraft achieved early operational capability last year and takes advantage of a 19-tube LAU-61G/A rocket launcher, which was developed as part of an urgent need requirement from US Central Command to increase the MH-60’s firepower. A key driver for integrating a ‘game-changing’ guided rocket capability on USN helicopters is the perceived growing threat from swarming fast inshore attack craft (FIAC).

APKWS has now been successfully fired from around a dozen rotary-wing, fixed-wing and ground vehicle platforms including the OH-58 Kiowa, Bell 407GT, H-60 Black Hawk and the unmanned MQ-8B Fire Scout.

In 2013, the weapon was also successfully tested on the US Army’s AH-64D – eight shots were fired at altitudes between 300 and 1,500ft and up to 5km from the target – to obtain an airworthiness qualification and allow Apache customers to buy the guidance kit.

The main integration goals for this year, said Mousseau, will be to qualify the system on the USN’s MH-60R and the USMC’s upgraded AH-1Z Viper attack helicopter.

The latest platform to fire APKWS is the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey, which was trialled with the guided rocket last November during industry tests at the US Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. These tests were funded by Bell and Boeing to demonstrate the potential of guided munitions for Osprey users such as Air Force Special Operations Command. Two Raytheon AGM-176 Griffin missiles were also fired from the V-22 during the demonstrations.

Asked why the APKWS and Griffin laser-guided munitions were selected, Bell Helicopter explained it had received a positive response

from BAE Systems and Raytheon when the company canvassed industry. ‘It really wasn’t munition-specific,’ said Vince Tobin, VP and programme manager for the V-22 at Bell. ‘It was just what was available.’

CLOSING UPIn terms of capabilities, precision-guided rockets are designed to fill a gap between bigger, more expensive, anti-tank weapons such as Lockheed Martin’s Hellfire missile, and unguided rockets used for area suppression missions.

‘If you look at the gap between those two weapons, there’s a big opportunity to have a smaller, much more precise, low-collateral-damage weapon system, and really that was what APKWS was born out of,’ explained BAE’s Harrold.

The most lucrative prize for BAE Systems will be an order from the US Army, the service which originally drove requirements for a guided rocket capability. Harrold told Defence Helicopter that the company had been working ‘very aggressively’ with the army, both on Apache airworthiness tests and developing tactics, techniques and procedures for the use of APKWS on the platform.

An order from the service could dwarf the existing uptake by the USN. At the time of the original contract, it was thought the army would buy up to 73,000 guided rocket kits, while the navy would only buy around 8,000.

‘If you look at the roadmap for the army, particularly PM JAMS, when they call out their small guided munitions or guided rocket, APKWS is specifically called out as their first phase for that,’ said Harrold, noting that APKWS is the only guided rocket programme of record

in the US DoD currently. ‘It makes sense that the US Army would bring this into their inventories since it’s already qualified in the US DoD.’

Despite BAE’s confidence that APKWS will eventually be chosen, it could still face competition from a number of other manufacturers in this niche market. These include Raytheon, with its Talon guided rocket, and Lockheed Martin, with a ‘mini-Hellfire’ system known as the Direct Attack Guided Rocket (DAGR).

‘The US Army has not made a selection for its helicopter fleet and is looking at various options for a small guided munition programme,’ a Raytheon spokesperson told DH. ‘We continue to talk with the US Army to understand their requirements so that we may offer the right solution should they decide to move forward with procurement.’

Raytheon began development efforts for a 70mm laser-guided rocket in 1999 and participated in the original US Army Low Cost Precision Kill/APKWS and APKWS II competitions. The evolved digital semi-active laser (DSAL) seeker technology resulting from those efforts was brought into the Talon programme, which began in 2008 with a cooperative development contract between Raytheon and Emirates Advanced Investments Group.

NO MODS REQUIREDLike APKWS, Talon does not require modifications to hardware or software and can be fired from any aircraft that currently uses the standard Hydra 70. It can also be used with airborne and ground-based laser designators. Remote designation or ‘buddy lasing’ is accomplished in the same manner as APKWS and all other US laser-guided weapons.

In early 2014, Talon was granted an airworthiness release (AWR) from the US Army for both the AH-64D and E models. The current AWR allows mission planners the flexibility to fully load out launchers with Talon as well as to mix it with a variety of other 70mm rockets, Raytheon told DH. Talon has also been fired from the OH-58D and MD 530G helicopters.

‘We intend to continue investing into Talon, demonstrating our commitment to potential US and international customers. Talon’s future looks very bright at this time and we are planning to offer significant improvements to the system in the next several years,’ the company spokesperson said.

Raytheon’s Talon guided rocket is currently in full-rate production as part of a $117 million contract with the UAE. (Photo: Raytheon)

www.baesystems.com/apkwsCS-15-A21-01

COST EFFECTIVE PRECISION.COMBAT PROVEN SOLUTION.

Military commanders turn to BAE Systems when they need affordable and reliable precision strike capability. Our APKWS™ 2.75in (70mm) laser guided rocket uses

proprietary DASALS™ technology to transform existing inventories of unguided rockets into precision weapon systems. Achieving a better than 93% hit rate in

theater, and demonstrated on more than a dozen fixed and rotary wing platforms, the APKWS rocket has proven to be the weapon of choice for precision strike.

artis

t illu

stra

tion


www.baesystems.com/apkwsCS-15-A21-01

COST EFFECTIVE PRECISION.COMBAT PROVEN SOLUTION.

Military commanders turn to BAE Systems when they need affordable and reliable precision strike capability. Our APKWS™ 2.75in (70mm) laser guided rocket uses

proprietary DASALS™ technology to transform existing inventories of unguided rockets into precision weapon systems. Achieving a better than 93% hit rate in

theater, and demonstrated on more than a dozen fixed and rotary wing platforms, the APKWS rocket has proven to be the weapon of choice for precision strike.

artis

t illu

stra

tion



WEAPON SYSTEMS

Lockheed’s DAGR system has also gained an AWR aboard the AH-64D after live-fire flight tests at Eglin AFB, Florida, last year. The missile scored a ‘perfect 16 for 16’, impacting targets within 1m of the laser spot from ranges varying between 1.5 and 5.1km, a Lockheed business development manager told DH.

In terms of launchers, the 16.3kg DAGR differs from APKWS and Talon in that it can be loaded into a four-pack launcher and fitted onto existing Hellfire rails such as the M299/M310. The rocket, which has been entirely funded by Lockheed, has already been fired from the AH-64D, AH-6 Mission Enhanced Little Bird, AH-6i, OH-58 and H-60 platforms.

In addition to the conventional lock-on after launch (LOAL) feature used by APKWS and other guided rocket systems, DAGR offers a lock-on before launch (LOBL) capability. With LOBL, the pilot can confirm that the rocket has locked onto the intended target before deploying it, minimising the likelihood of collateral damage.

‘Perhaps the most user-friendly benefit of DAGR is its commonality with Hellfire’s interface,’ said the Lockheed spokesperson. ‘DAGR interacts with Hellfire-equipped platforms. A pilot already knowledgeable in Hellfire employment will require no additional training to employ DAGR.’

The company said it was unable to discuss specific customers or pursuits, but was eager to extend DAGR capability to a wide variety of DoD and allied platform operators.

As Raytheon’s deal in the UAE shows, there is global interest in guided 70mm rockets. In September 2014, the company announced that full-rate production of Talon had begun as part of a $117 million contract with the UAE armed forces. When asked, Raytheon would not

disclose how many Talon rockets had been sold to this customer, citing contractual obligations.

Raytheon’s Emirati deal could spark more orders from Asia and the Middle East for Talon. The company said it is currently in discussions with three specific customers that may procure the weapon system this year.

EXPORT INTERESTAustralia has also shown a keen interest in a guided rocket capability for its Tiger Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH). Last November, APKWS was integrated for the first time with a non-Hydra rocket motor and warhead as part of trials with the Australian Army. A Tiger ARH fired a Forges de Zeebrugge (FZ) 70mm rocket with the guidance kit attached. Maj David Paterson, commander of the Rotary Wing Flight within the army’s Aircraft Stores Compatibility Engineering Squadron, called the test a ‘significant achievement’.

Australia may even follow the USN’s lead and field APKWS on its new fleet of MH-60Rs that are being procured as part of an FMS arrangement.

‘Until the Australian evaluation, we limited our view to countries that were using Hydra rockets – clearly that’s different now,’ said BAE’s Harrold.

‘We’ve had tremendous interest internationally and a number of formal requests from countries.’

Last May, Jordan became the first export customer for APKWS when it was announced it would acquire the system under an FMS agreement worth $5.5 million. The rockets will be integrated on the Royal Jordanian Air Force’s AC-235 light gunship, which can carry rocket pods on pylons fitted to the undercarriage sponsons. The government of Iraq has also requested the sale of up to 2,000 APKWS and associated equipment, as part of a $97 million FMS agreement.

BAE Systems, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin are not the only manufacturers that have unveiled guided 70mm rocket systems.

ATK, in cooperation with Israel’s Elbit Systems, has developed the Guided Advanced Tactical Rocket (GATR), which incorporates the same semi-active laser seeker as used in the JDAM. In 2013, ATK won a $3.2 million contract from US Special Operations Command to provide GATR rockets and launchers for operational evaluation on MH-60L/M rotary-wing platforms.

Turkish manufacturer Roketsan has also entered the mix with its 70mm Cirit guided rocket, which will be fitted to the Turkish Army’s T129 ATAK helicopter. The 15kg Cirit has a maximum range of 8km and is intended to be a complete system, not a guidance kit, Roketsan has said. Cirit will utilise a multi-purpose warhead (armour piercing, anti-personnel and incendiary) as well as an HE option.

MISSILES VS ROCKETSAs outlined above, a key selling point for many manufacturers is the ability to fire guided munitions using existing 70mm rocket infrastructure, such as pods and interface electronics, found on most attack helicopters. APKWS, Talon, DAGR and other similar systems require virtually no modifications to the platform, which is hugely important when it comes to areas such as integration cost.

It is for this reason that guided 70mm rounds will be mostly fired from attack helicopters, explained David Beatty, VP of advanced weapon systems at Thales UK: ‘Everybody is taking the initiative that if an attack helicopter has already got rocket pods, and so on, on board, wouldn’t it be sensible to put a guided rocket version onto the same type of platform?’

Beatty admitted there is ‘a little bit of conflict and overlap’ between guided rockets and

‘A pilot knowledgeable in Hellfire employment will require no additional training to employ DAGR.’

The Australian Army tested APKWS last November, firing a guided 70mm rocket from a Tiger Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter. (Image: BAE Systems)


www.rotorhub.com Volume 34 Number 1 | January/February 2015 | Defence Helicopter 19

WEAPON SYSTEMS

THE PRIMARY LOAD OUT TOW BRIDLE FOR:

SPECIAL OPERATIONSUS ARMY

US AIR FORCE

HeliBasket, [email protected]

001 864 985 0804

heli_basket.indd 1 15/08/2014 13:49:38

Thales’ own Lightweight Multirole Missile (LMM), a 13kg system which has been selected to equip the UK’s AW159 Wildcat naval helicopters.

In July 2014, the UK MoD awarded Thales a £48 million ($72 million) contract for demonstration and manufacture of the Future Anti Surface Guided Weapon (Light) (FASGW(L)) – the UK programme that LMM was originally developed for.

Unlike most guided rockets that use a semi-active laser seeker, the LMM, which has a range of up to 8km, will use a ‘beam-riding’ guidance system. Thales says it is accurate to within 0.25m of a target designation spot and is also more reliable in the naval domain. Stored in two five-pod launchers on either side of the aircraft, LMM is designed to target numerous small threats such as FIAC.

‘LMM is a missile, it is structurally designed to take on a broader range of targets than a rocket,’ explained Beatty. ‘[A guided rocket] has a very flexible mechanical structure and aerodynamic structure, [but] that rocket was never designed to take on a very demanding, moving target set.’

One key advantage of the LMM is its ability to shoot rapidly manoeuvring targets that a rocket will have ‘severe limitations’ against, according to Beatty. Another key feature of the LMM is its ability to take on aerial opposition such as other helicopters or UAVs, something guided rockets cannot do.

Thales said it would like to see the LMM on the Apache or other Wildcat-type aircraft such as the Airbus Helicopters AS565 Panther, although with the former platform, Beatty admitted it would be difficult to persuade customers not to go with the guided rocket option.

‘You do have to take the cost of ownership and integration into consideration,’ he acknowledged, noting that he had spoken to several attack helicopter operators. ‘Have they already had the integration of rockets on their attack helicopter? That helps, that’s a big advantage for the guided rocket. Whereas we would have to put that integration into the helicopter, so that’s a downside.’

DUMBING DOWNDespite all the interest in guided rockets, their ‘dumb’ unguided brethren still have a place within modern military arsenals. The US DoD, for instance, continues to buy the Hydra 70 in significant numbers for missions such as air-to-ground suppression, smoke-screening and

illumination. General Dynamics, as system integrator for Hydra, recently won a new $57.9 million contract with the US Army to supply rockets and associated equipment.

The USN’s Mousseau said that as the procurement of guided rockets continues, there will eventually be a discussion on what the guided/unguided ratio will be, although that is still in its early stages. ‘Unguided rockets provide another low-cost opportunity for aircrew to provide suppression and rapidity of fire, so there

is still value, significant value, in having a mix of guided and unguided rockets,’ he concluded.

Guided rocket evolution is still in its early stages, so it is unclear what system will eventually prove to be most popular. BAE Systems has certainly got the attention of the biggest military customer in the world, but time will tell whether the US Army and other nations’ armed forces are willing to invest more in this technology or stick with the tried-and-tested 70mm rocket. DH


Documents

The New Seekers