At one time, warfighters who needed to eliminate soft targets or lightly armored threats from a distance had a tough choice to make – they could either fire an unguided rocket in the target’s general direction or they could use a precision-strike missile, which was designed to destroy armored vehicles, like tanks. The unguided rocket might miss the target entirely and possibly hit non-combatants or friendly forces, whereas the precision-strike missile could cause significant collateral damage. By adding the highly-accurate APKWS laser guidance kit to the body of the unguided rocket, that rocket turned into a precision-guided munition (PGM) capable of hitting the intended soft target threat while minimizing collateral damage.
The APKWS system has the precision that today’s warfighter needs to hit soft and lightly-armored targets –from a distance in Military Operations in Urbanized Terrain (MOUT) and other conditions, with the optimal amount of destructive power. In addition, because an APKWS laser rocket is 1/3 of the weight and cost of traditional laser-guided anti-armor munitions, warfighters can load their rotary-wing or fixed-wing aircraft with more precision-strike firepower on every mission. The system even makes ground-to-ground use both more effective and affordable.