{"id":15885587,"date":"2026-08-24T15:58:56","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T13:58:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/italy-apkws-ii-air-to-air-counter-drone-fms-approval-2026\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T16:00:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T14:00:50","slug":"italy-apkws-ii-air-to-air-counter-drone-fms-approval-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/italy-apkws-ii-air-to-air-counter-drone-fms-approval-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy Said No to Drone Killers. Then It Bought 5,031."},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n\r\n<p>In June 2025, an Italian Air Force spokesperson told Janes that Italy was not looking at acquiring any mission-specific systems to counter drones.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>On 21 August 2026, the US State Department approved the sale to Italy of 5,031 laser guidance kits designed to turn cheap unguided rockets into drone-killers. Estimated cost: $364 million.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>We wrote about this weapon last month in <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/apkws-laser-guided-rocket-saudi-arabia-counter-drone-2026\/\">The $20,000 Rocket That Kills Drones<\/a>. What has changed is who is buying it, and how fast the argument turned.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;padding:20px 22px;margin:24px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;color:#333;font-size:17px\">Quick Facts<\/p><table style=\"width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;font-size:15px;text-align:left\"><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;color:#666;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\">Approved<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#1a1a1a\">21 August 2026, U.S. Department of State, Transmittal #26-92<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;color:#666;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\">Recipient<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#1a1a1a\">Government of Italy<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;color:#666;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\">Estimated cost<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#1a1a1a\">$364 million (approximately &euro;312 million)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;color:#666;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\">Principal item<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#1a1a1a\">5,031 &times; Guidance Section Single Variant Air-to-Air APKWS-II, WGU-59B\/B<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;color:#666;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\">Also included<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#1a1a1a\">LAU-131 A\/A launchers, Mk-152 HE warheads, MK66 rocket motors, proximity fuzes, practice warheads<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;color:#666;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\">Prime contractor<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#1a1a1a\">BAE Systems, Nashua, New Hampshire<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;color:#666;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\">Weapon type<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#1a1a1a\">70 mm (2.75 in) semi-active laser-guided rocket<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;color:#666;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\">Guidance section cost<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#1a1a1a\">Around $15,000 per unit<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;color:#666;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\">Compared with<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#1a1a1a\">AIM-9X Block II ~$420,000; AIM-120 AMRAAM over $1 million<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;color:#666;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\">Carrying platform<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#1a1a1a\">Not specified in the release<\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Arithmetic That Changed Everyone&rsquo;s Mind<\/h2><p>APKWS II is not a new weapon. It is a guidance kit that screws in between a standard 70 mm Hydra rocket motor and a ten-pound warhead, with four folding wings carrying the laser seeker optics. No modification is needed to the rocket, the launcher or the aircraft&rsquo;s fire control system.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The result costs about $15,000 in guidance, plus a few thousand for the rest. An AIM-9X costs around $420,000. An AMRAAM costs over a million.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=765197559  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/italian-air-force-eurofighter-f-2000a-typhoon-riat-2023.jpg\" alt=\"Italian Air Force Eurofighter F-2000A Typhoon\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">An Italian Air Force Eurofighter, designated F-2000A in Italian service. The State Department release does not say which platform will carry APKWS, and the Eurofighter link is analyst inference rather than official. (Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<p>Against a Shahed-type drone that costs perhaps $20,000 to build, firing a million-dollar missile is a losing trade even when you win. A seven-tube LAU-131 pod on a single hardpoint carries seven guided shots where one missile used to hang. That is the whole argument, and it is why the position reversed so quickly.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;What a difference a year makes &mdash; after every Eurofighter partner operator told me in 2025 that they had no plans to fit APKWS for counter-drone, BAE Systems tells Janes and others at Warton today that there is now strong interest from all 10 partner and export operators.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Gareth Jennings<\/strong> &mdash; Aviation Editor, Janes, writing in June 2026<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"max-width:550px;margin:0 auto 28px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?id=2067695095835746591&theme=light\" style=\"width:100%;height:400px;border:none;overflow:hidden\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">One Week After a Live Shootdown<\/h2><p>The timing is hard to miss. On 14 August 2026, an Italian Typhoon shot down an unidentified drone over Latvia during NATO Baltic Air Policing. The State Department approval came seven days later.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Italian Typhoons currently have AMRAAM, Meteor, IRIS-T and a 27 mm Mauser cannon for that job. All of them work. None of them is economical against something that costs less than a family car, and the cannon requires closing to a range nobody enjoys.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Britain got there first: by May 2026 the RAF had APKWS-II operational on Typhoons with 9 Squadron at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. The UK had made the same denial as Italy a year earlier.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/j09uoOvi1tk\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">What the Release Does Not Say<\/h2><p>The State Department language is the standard formula, and worth quoting because it sets the framing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;The proposed sale will improve Italy&rsquo;s capability to meet current and future threats by strengthening its homeland defense and serving as a deterrent to regional threats. This enhanced capability will protect Italy and local allied land forces and will significantly improve Italy&rsquo;s contribution to NATO integrated air missile defense.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>U.S. Department of State<\/strong> &mdash; Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, Transmittal #26-92, 21 August 2026<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>What it does not say is which service gets the rockets or what aircraft carries them. Every report linking this to the Eurofighter is making a reasonable inference from the air-to-air designation and the RAF precedent, not repeating an official statement. The LAU-131 A\/A launcher is equally at home on helicopters.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The approval is also not a contract. Congress reviews it, and terms still have to be negotiated. But the direction of travel across NATO is now unambiguous: when the threat is cheap and numerous, the answer has to be cheap and numerous too.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><em>Sources: U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, Transmittal #26-92, 21 August 2026; The Aviationist, 21 August 2026; Janes; Militarnyi.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/apkws-laser-guided-rocket-saudi-arabia-counter-drone-2026\/\">The $20,000 Rocket That Kills Drones<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/spanish-f-18-shoots-down-drone-romania-galati-2026\/\">A Spanish F-18 Shoots Down a Drone Over Romania<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/typhoon-fires-drone-killing-rockets-in-uk-first\/\">Typhoon Fires Drone-Killing Rockets in a UK First<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In June 2025, an Italian Air Force spokesperson told Janes that Italy was not looking at acquiring any mission-specific systems to counter drones. On 21 August 2026, the US State Department approved the sale to Italy of 5,031 laser guidance kits designed to turn cheap unguided rockets into drone-killers. Estimated cost: $364 million. We wrote [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":15884245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[664,670],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15885587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military-aviation","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>APKWS for Italy: 5,031 Drone Killers Approved | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Italy said it had no plans for counter-drone systems in 2025. 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