{"id":6566206,"date":"2026-07-21T11:12:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T09:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/apkws-laser-guided-rocket-saudi-arabia-counter-drone-2026\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T11:57:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T09:57:04","slug":"apkws-laser-guided-rocket-saudi-arabia-counter-drone-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/fr\/apkws-laser-guided-rocket-saudi-arabia-counter-drone-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"The $20,000 Rocket That Kills Drones"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style><\/p>\r\n<p>An AIM-120 AMRAAM costs about a million dollars. An AIM-9X Sidewinder costs around $450,000. A Shahed-type one-way attack drone costs perhaps $20,000 to $50,000, and Iran and its partners can build them faster than anyone can afford to shoot them down with million-dollar missiles.<\/p>\r\n<p>That arithmetic has been the quiet crisis of Middle Eastern air defence for three years. The workaround is a laser guidance kit that bolts onto a 1960s-vintage unguided rocket and costs about as much as a used car.<\/p>\r\n<p>On 15 July, the US State Department cleared Saudi Arabia to buy up to 20,000 of them.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background: #f5f5f5; padding: 20px 24px; margin: 24px 0; border-radius: 8px;\">\r\n<p style=\"margin: 0 0 12px; font-weight: bold; font-size: 17px; color: #222;\">Informations cl\u00e9s<\/p>\r\n<table style=\"width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6;\">\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 5px 12px 5px 0; color: #666; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;\"><strong>What was approved<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 5px 0; color: #222;\">A possible Foreign Military Sale to Saudi Arabia of up to 20,000 Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System guidance kits<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 5px 12px 5px 0; color: #666; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;\"><strong>Annonc\u00e9<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 5px 0; color: #222;\">15 July 2026 by the US State Department<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 5px 12px 5px 0; color: #666; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;\"><strong>Valeur<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 5px 0; color: #222;\">Approximately $1.96 billion<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 5px 12px 5px 0; color: #666; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;\"><strong>The split<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 5px 0; color: #222;\">Around 10,000 AGR-20 air-to-ground kits and 10,000 AGR-20F FALCO air-to-air kits<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 5px 12px 5px 0; color: #666; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;\"><strong>\u00c9galement inclus<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 5px 0; color: #222;\">LAU-131\/A seven-shot 70\u00a0mm rocket pods, Mk\u00a066 rocket motors, Mk-152 high-explosive warheads, proximity fuzes, spares and training<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 5px 12px 5px 0; color: #666; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;\"><strong>Prime contractor<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 5px 0; color: #222;\">BAE Systems, Nashua, New Hampshire<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 5px 12px 5px 0; color: #666; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;\"><strong>Unit cost<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 5px 0; color: #222;\">A guidance section runs roughly $15,000\u2013$20,000; the complete round comes in around $22,000<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 5px 12px 5px 0; color: #666; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;\"><strong>Important<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<td style=\"padding: 5px 0; color: #222;\">This is a Congressional notification, not a signed contract. Quantities and values are ceilings and routinely shrink<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top: 22px;\">It is a kit, not a rocket<\/h2>\r\n<p>The most common error in coverage of this sale is calling it an order for 20,000 laser-guided rockets. It is not. APKWS is a guidance section \u2014 a mid-body kit that screws in between the warhead and the motor of a standard Hydra 70 rocket and turns a dumb, area-effect weapon into a precision one.<\/p>\r\n<p>The rockets themselves are largely a separate matter. What Saudi Arabia has been cleared to buy is the intelligence to put in front of them.<\/p>\r\n<p>The design is elegant in a way that engineers appreciate. The laser seekers sit on the leading edges of the four guidance wings, folded flat inside the launch tube. They only deploy after the rocket leaves the pod, which is why the kit works with existing launchers and existing aircraft wiring without modification. That backward compatibility is the entire reason the weapon has spread so fast.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin: 0 0 24px; width: 100%;\"><img data-opt-id=562441597  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: auto; max-width: 100%; display: block; border-radius: 6px;\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/07\/apkws-ii-laser-guided-rocket-mockup.jpg\" alt=\"APKWS II guidance section full-scale mockup alongside a standard 70mm rocket\" width=\"1024\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" \/>\r\n<figcaption style=\"font-size: 13px; color: #777; text-align: center; margin-top: 6px; font-style: italic;\">An APKWS II full-scale mock-up beside a standard 70\u00a0mm rocket. The guidance section slots in between the warhead and the motor of a weapon that has been in service since the 1960s. Photo: Wikimedia Commons \/ CC BY-SA 4.0<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top: 22px;\">FALCO: pointing it upwards<\/h2>\r\n<p>The air-to-air half of the package is the newer and more interesting part. FALCO \u2014 Fixed Wing, Air Launched, Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems Ordnance \u2014 is a modified APKWS with a proximity fuze and reworked guidance algorithms, built to hit something moving through the air rather than something sitting on the ground.<\/p>\r\n<p>It came out of an urgent operational requirement, and it works. US Air Force F-16s have been using laser-guided rockets against Houthi drones over and around the Red Sea, and by AFCENT's own account they have become the principal air-to-air weapon against drone threats in the region.<\/p>\r\n<p>The tactical logic is straightforward: a seven-shot pod means seven chances per station instead of one missile per rail. Against a saturation attack by cheap drones, magazine depth matters more than the sophistication of any individual shot.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background: #f8f9fa; border-left: 4px solid #5C91FF; padding: 20px 22px; margin: 18px 0 24px; border-radius: 0 8px 8px 0; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.7; display: flex; gap: 20px; align-items: flex-start;\">\r\n<div><em>\u201cIt\u2019s our primary weapon against a drone. We\u2019ve had multiple shoot-downs with it\u201d<\/em>\r\n<div style=\"margin-top: 10px; font-size: 14px; color: #555;\"><strong>Lt. Gen. Derek France<\/strong> \u2014 Commander, US Air Forces Central (speaking at the AFA Air, Space &amp; Cyber Conference, 2025)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin: 0 0 24px; width: 100%;\"><img data-opt-id=884059047  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: auto; max-width: 100%; display: block; border-radius: 6px;\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/07\/apkws-guidance-kits-idex-2023.jpg\" alt=\"APKWS guidance kit models displayed at IDEX 2023\" width=\"1024\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" \/>\r\n<figcaption style=\"font-size: 13px; color: #777; text-align: center; margin-top: 6px; font-style: italic;\">APKWS on display at IDEX. The weapon has become one of the most widely exported counter-drone solutions in the Western inventory. Photo: Wikimedia Commons \/ CC BY-SA 4.0<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top: 22px;\">Why Saudi Arabia, and why now<\/h2>\r\n<p>The State Department's justification uses the standard language, but the operational reasoning behind it is not hard to read.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background: #f8f9fa; border-left: 4px solid #1565c0; padding: 20px 22px; margin: 18px 0 24px; border-radius: 0 8px 8px 0; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.7; display: flex; gap: 20px; align-items: flex-start;\">\r\n<div><em>\u201cThe proposed sale will improve Saudi Arabia\u2019s capability to deter current and future threats by strengthening its homeland defense, and improving interoperability with U.S. forces, and other regional and NATO forces. The proposed sale will also augment Saudi Arabia\u2019s operational aircraft and enhance its air-to-air, and air-to-ground self-defense capability\u201d<\/em>\r\n<div style=\"margin-top: 10px; font-size: 14px; color: #555;\"><strong>U.S. Department of State<\/strong> \u2014 Foreign Military Sale notification, 15 July 2026<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<p>Saudi Arabia has spent a decade on the receiving end of drone and cruise-missile attacks, and the regional situation has deteriorated sharply this year. The notification does not specify which aircraft will carry the weapon, but analysts expect the Royal Saudi Air Force's <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/fr\/aeronef\/eurofighter-typhoon\/\">Eurofighter Typhoons<\/a> et <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/fr\/aeronef\/f-15-aigle\/\">F-15SAs<\/a> \u2014 both of which already have the targeting pods needed to designate for a laser-guided weapon.<\/p>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top: 22px;\">The wider point<\/h2>\r\n<p>Air defence has spent seventy years getting more capable and more expensive per shot. The drone reversed the incentive: the cheapest possible threat, produced in quantity, against the most expensive possible interceptors.<\/p>\r\n<p>APKWS is the clearest example so far of the West trying to invert that back. Take a rocket that has been in service since Vietnam, add twenty thousand dollars of optics and control surfaces, and you have something that can kill a drone for roughly one fiftieth of what an AMRAAM costs.<\/p>\r\n<p>It does not solve everything. It needs a laser designation, which means weather and line of sight matter, and it is a short-range weapon. But for the specific problem of cheap drones arriving in numbers, it is currently the best answer anybody has \u2014 and Saudi Arabia has just been cleared to buy twenty thousand of them.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; margin: 24px 0;\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" style=\"position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; border: 0; border-radius: 8px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IpAvvj0pLc4\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-no-lazy=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size: 14px; color: #777; text-align: center; margin-top: -8px; font-style: italic;\">BAE Systems on how the APKWS guidance section works and why it fits existing launchers.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"max-width: 550px; margin: 0 auto 28px;\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 400px; border: none; border-radius: 12px; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?id=2076922140243497244&amp;theme=light\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-no-lazy=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p><em>Sources: US Department of State, The War Zone, FlightGlobal, Defense Daily, Air &amp; Space Forces Magazine.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background: #f0f4ff; border-left: 4px solid #5C91FF; padding: 16px 20px; margin: 32px 0 8px; border-radius: 0 8px 8px 0;\">\r\n<p style=\"margin: 0 0 8px; font-weight: 600; color: #333;\">Articles similaires<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 4px 0;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/air-defence-interceptor-cost-asymmetry-magazine-depth\/\">L&#039;intercepteur que vous ne pouvez pas vous permettre<\/a><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 4px 0;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/air-force-battle-lab-counter-drone-options-2026\/\">L&#039;arm\u00e9e de l&#039;air am\u00e9ricaine recherche de nouvelles m\u00e9thodes pour d\u00e9truire les drones.<\/a><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 4px 0;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/israel-iron-dome-iron-beam-integrated-test-2026\/\">Iron Dome Just Got a Laser Sidekick<\/a><\/p>\r\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An AMRAAM costs a million dollars. A Shahed costs twenty thousand. APKWS is the West&#8217;s attempt to invert that arithmetic, and Saudi Arabia has just been cleared to buy 20,000 kits.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":6564199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[665,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6566206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-world","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>APKWS: The Cheap Rocket That Kills Drones<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An AMRAAM costs a million dollars, a Shahed drone twenty thousand. 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