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In “Hydra-70 Rockets: From Cutbacks to the Future of Warfare,” Sen. Leahy’s [D-VT] work to keep the Hydra 70mm rocket family alive through special appropriations was discussed, just in time for the Hydras’ potential on the battlefield to rise again. The key was the addition of low-cost precision guidance, which would expand the number of precision weapons carried by helicopters, aircraft, and even UAVs. “APKWS II… Hydra Rockets Enter SDD Phase,” discussed a laser-guided version from BAE, General Dynamics, and Northrop Grumman that appeared to have the inside track as a precision weapon of choice for helicopters, UAVs, and aircraft. This proved true, and the team won that contract in April 2006.

A lot can change in a couple of years. A lot has. This second attempt at APKWS has seen its program status change, before righting the program with Navy funding. Meanwhile, private development efforts from Lockheed Martin, Thales TDA, and a raft of international partnerships between major defense firms and partners in Korea, the UAE, Canada and Norway, and Israel are introducing new competitors into the precision-guided 70mm rocket space. The latest updates include successful tests of Elbit/ATK’s 70mm GATR system, and of a USMC program to retrofit its larger Zuni rockets…

• APKWS II: To be, or not to be…
• Lockheed Martin: Is this a DAGR I see before me…?
• LOGIR: ”...the heavenly-harnessed team/ Begins his golden progress in the east…”
• Raytheon and the UAE: “Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie…”
• Other Entries: “Come unto these yellow sands….” [updated]

APKWS II: “To be, or not to be…”

BAE/GD APKWS
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“APKWS II “Hellfire Jr.” Hydra Rockets Enter SDD Phase” is DID’s FOCUS article for the APKWS II program, noting updates and developments related to the BAE/ General Dynamics/ Northrop Grumman partnership and its project.

FY 2007 funding was received, and the program continues with the development and is having successful tests. It’s seeker has a much narrower “cone” than Lockheed Martin’s DAGR competitor, however, (+/- 4 degrees, vs. +/- 15 degrees), and BAE’s APKWS II system found itself “zeroed out” in the FY 2008 budget appropriations. BAE informed DID that the US Navy and USMC continued to pursue funding of APKWS-II within the FY 2008 appropriations process, with the goal of completing SDD and entering Milestone C in the second quarter of CY 2009.

Despite the emergence of privately funded competitors and allied partnerships, The US Navy elected to stick with APKWS-II, and stepped in as the main funding source in 2008. That move secures BAE and Northrop Grumman’s place in the market, even as offerings that are or will be fully developed are changing the competitive landscape.

Lockheed Martin: Is this a DAGR I see before me…?

DAGR concept
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Leveraging existing Hellfire and Joint Common Missile technology, the semi-active DAGR guided rockets offer functionality comparable to the popular Hellfire missile, including lock-on-before-launch, lock-on-after-launch, target location handoff, enhanced built-in test, programmable laser coding, and flexible fly-out modes. DAGR rockets’ +/- 15 deg sighting cone offers a wider field of view than competitors and can be launched from any platform that currently supports the Hellfire weapon system, removing any requirements for additional integration, training, or infrastructure if that platform is already compatible.

Jan 8/09: DAGR succeeds in its first live warhead launch, and penetrates the side of the target vehicle before exploding. Lockheed Martin says that the weapon is now 12 for 12 in tests.

Feb 28/08: Lockheed Martin announces 3 successful tests (2 guided flight, 1 multi-purpose sled) of the DAGR semi-active laser guidance kit for 2.75-inch/70mm rockets. The tests were designed to demonstrate the system’s accuracy, wide sighting capability, and delayed fuzing mode. Lockheed reports that DAGR is now 6-for-6 in control vehicle and guided test vehicle flights, which began in February 2006.

DAGRs & Hellfires
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Sept 17/07: Flight International reports that a land-based version of DAGR could be deployed to Iraq soon. Randy Thomas, business development manager for DAGR, told them that the US Army wants to network DAGR rockets and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles with a network of tower-based sensors (very likely the RAID towers) at army bases in Iraq. The system would be used as a surveillance and suppress/ instant reply option against enemy mortar teams. Lockheed is also pushing for DAGR integration onto helicopters and UAVs.

If they succeed in these efforts, Lockheed Martin could wind up losing the formal competition, but winning the procurement competition by pre-empting their rival’s R&D cycle with a working solution whose initial deployment sidesteps the original competition. That doesn’t happen very often in US military procurement, which is another reason the “Guided Hydroids” competition is worth following closely.

Sept 11/07: Lockheed formally unveils the DAGR as a finished, for-sale at Britain’s DSEi defense show. The rockets can be fired from existing M299 and M310 Hellfire launchers, with 4-packs of DAGRs mounted to each Hellfire missile rail. As the maker of the Hellfire missile and launcher, they are uniquely positioned to offer this level of integration.

This clears the way for DAGR rockets to be employed immediately on larger unmanned aerial vehicles like the MQ-1 Predator, MQ-9 Reaper, MC-1C Sky Warrior, and MQ-8B Fire Scout; on AH-1 Cobra, AH-64 Apache, H-60 Seahawk, OH-58 Kiowa, and Eurocopter Tiger helicopters; and on the ARH-70A Armed Reconnaissance helicopter if and when it is delivered.

That kind of flexibility also positions Lockheed Martin for any situation in which APKWS II is shut down and turned into a “fly-off” competition, because of the extra flexibility their launcher options create.

March 7/07: Lockheed may have lost the APKWS II competition, but it didn’t give up. The DAGR (70mm Direct Attack Guided Rocket, not to be confused with DAGR hand-held GPS locators) completed development with company funding. Lockheed especially touts its wider boresight/ off-axis capability, which allows it to launch within a wider “flight cone” and still find its way to the target.

February 2007 flight tests demonstrated objective maneuverability capability for minimum range engagements. The DAGR rocket supports launch from unmanned aerial vehicle platforms; later in 2007, Lockheed Martin will complete a full test flight matrix for unmanned aerial vehicles and helicopters, as well as perform platform launch. See Lockheed Martin release.

• Lockheed Martin – DAGR product page

LOGIR: ”...the heavenly-harnessed team/ Begins his golden progress in the east…”

LOGIR & APKWS
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March 2/07: Korea and the United States have agreed to cooperate in developing guided air-launched rockets, signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for “LOGIR” (Low-Cost Guided Imaging Rocket) development. The budget for this project is reportedly more than $60 million.

“The LOGIR project is a main joint project for weapons development between South Korea and the U.S.,” said Park Young-wook, director of South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration’s (ROK DAPA) technology acquirement department. A ROK DAPA official added that “Korea will bear only several million won and the U.S. will be responsible for the rest amount…. The allies will cooperate in development of running gear, guidance system, and detector on the base of LOGIR.” See KOIS report | DynamicKorea.com report.

Sources indicate that LOGIR involves a Hydra 70 2.75-in. rocket with an inertial + infrared guidance kit added to the front. The kit consists of a low-cost uncooled imaging infrared focal plane array that can match a target profile with a pre-programmed (or transmitted) “image” in its memory, a low-cost micro electro-mechanical inertial measurement unit to track current and relative position and get the rocket near its target, a control actuation system for maneuvering, and computer electronics to tie it all together.

This combination appears to be staking out the lower end of the guided rocket market, even as Lockheed’s DAGR appears to stake out the high end. LOGIR won’t be quite as effective against mobile targets as a more expensive system that might use ongoing laser designation or millimeter-wave seekers. Instead, it offers a lower-cost system that has its own approach to fire-and-forget capability, works well against relatively stationary targets which still make up a large percentage of precision attack missions (a building, a parked vehicle, an enemy machine-gun position, etc.), and still has good effectiveness against moving targets.

From NAVAIR weapons development’s “Arming the Fleet” publication:

“The LOGIR project began in 2000 and is still under way. Its primary objective is to significantly improve the warfighter’s ability to address moving and fixed targets with an emphasis on moving targets. LOGIR allows the warfighter to designate the target using the existing targeting FLIR. Once designated, the pilot can fire the rocket and leave the area. LOGIR will use the FLIR targeting data to fly to the target, and acquire and track the target to weapon impact.”

Testing of various components has continued, slowly. The US-ROK memorandum of understanding should help to accelerate program efforts through to completion, and help to guarantee a floor for orders and production.

Raytheon and the UAE: “Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie…”

Hydra family
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On May 7/08, a new competitor entered the fray. Raytheon Company and Emirates Advanced Investments of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates announced a cooperative development agreement for a semi-active laser-guided 70 mm/ 2.75-inch rocket, later named TALON. The agreement represents a full transfer of technology to the United Arab Emirates; subject to approval of the respective companies’ governments, Raytheon Missile Systems and Emirates Advanced Investments will produce the laser guided rocket for national and international customers.

The agreement details a complete development and qualification program and provides for a follow-on proposal to supply a commercial off-the-shelf laser guided rocket for military customers in the United Arab Emirates, United States and other countries. Initially, the laser guided rocket will be qualified on a single United Arab Emirates’ platform, with later integration onto additional platforms.

Hussain I. Al Hammadi, Emirates Advanced Investments’ chief executive officer:

“The Laser Guided Rocket project with Raytheon is a very important defense industry initiative for the United Arab Emirates… that will provide future benefits for the armed forces of both our countries. It is designed to destroy targets ranging from tactical armored vehicles to high-speed naval craft and will provide a very affordable precision weapon for attack helicopters.”

Richard Janik, Raytheon Missile Systems’ Laser Guided Rocket program manager points out a side-effect that has been the case before, from Iran’s rescue of the USA’s F-14 Tomcat fighter program to the UAE’s own development of the F-16 E/F Block 60 Desert Falcon, whose technologies now feature in Lockheed Martin’s F-16 offer to India:

“This program is also intended to benefit the United States Army, Navy and Marine Corps… because they would be able to obtain a fully qualified laser guided rocket that meets or exceeds all the guided 70 mm rocket requirements of the United States, without expending tens of millions of dollars of investment in research, evaluation, and testing.”

Dec 22/09: The U.S. Army fires 2 TALON Laser-Guided Rocket guided test vehicle rounds from an OH-58D Kiowa Warrior, and hit targets at 3,500 meters (2.17 miles). The Raytheon release adds that “this exceeded accuracy requirements for the Department of Defense’s Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System II program. In September, the U.S. Army clearly stated the need for a guided munition capable of being launched from the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior…”

Oct 8/08: Raytheon announces the completion of wind tunnel tests for the Laser Guided Rocket in Buffao, NY’s Calspan Transonic Wind Tunnel. It’s the first testing step in a 24-month development and qualification program, providing simulations and data that will help with autopilot design.

Other Entries: “Come unto these yellow sands….”

CRV7s from Harrier
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CRV7-PG. Defense Review cites the Magellan Aerospace/Kongsberg Defence & Aerorspace (KDA) CRV7-Precision Guided (CRV7-PG) 70mm rocket (2.75” rocket). The UK/Canadian firm Magellan has produced excellent 70mm CRV7 rockets for quite some time. They are providing the rocket technology. Kongsberg is handling the guidance system, which is derived from its work on the from Penguin anti-ship missile and Naval Strike Missile (NSM).

This CADSI profile states that seeker options include semi-active radar, laser guidance, GPS, and anti-radiation; if so, the CRV-7PG would offer precision-strike 70mm rocket options for many existing fighter aircraft, as well as helicopters and UAVs. The development partnership was announced on June 15/06, at at Eurosatory 2006.

GATR-L (Guided Advanced Tactical Rocket – Laser). On July 9/08, Israel’s Elbit Systems Ltd. and American ammunition and rocketry expert Alliant Techsystems (ATK) announced a teaming agreement to develop the 70mm GATR-L for use on “fixed-wing, rotary-wing, and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) platforms.”

The 70mm rocket employs a Semi-Active Laser (SAL) guidance package, and will have the ability to lock-on before or after launch, as well as autonomous or remote laser designation. The system can be deployed against targets at ranges of 1.5 km to over 8 km. ATK release.

June 1/09: Successful flight tests in Israel. They include a test from a helicopter using lock-on before launch, in order to engage an off boresight target outside the rocket’s normal seeker cone, at a range of about 3 km. The tests validated flight worthiness, safe separation launch, and autonomous laser designated guided flight.

Oct 6/08: Successful GATR-L flight tests at White Sands, NM, fired from an M261 launcher at ranges out to 6 km. Military Aerospace & Electronics report.

SYROCOT (Systeme de Roquette A Corrections de Trajectoire). France is interested in this project, based on the ubiquitous SNEB 68mm rocket. Thales subsidiary TDA, who makes the SNEB, has experimented with both laser-guided and GPS-guided rockets, and plans to market a 70mm version of SYROCOT.

Oct 8/08: Thales announces the first successful test-firing of its laser-guided SYROCOT, in cooperation with France’s DGA procurement agency.

Ugroza/Kor. Russia’s AMETEX began touting its ‘Ugroza’ (Menace) guided air-ground guided rocket systems at MAKS 1999. Ugroza can reportedly be fitted to the 57mm S-5, 80mm S-8, and 122mm S-13 rockets, adding the suffix “Kor” to their designation.

F/A-18C fires Zuni
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Zuni with WGU-58/B: A Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD) project in response to a US Marine Corps request to retrofit its 127mm Zuni rockets for semi-active laser guidance, allowing aircraft to fire them from existing 4-rocket LAU-10 pods with no modifications required. That program is included in the 2007 Marine Aviation plan.

NAWCWD developed the WGU-58/B guidance system in cooperation with European missile giant MBDA. Other industry partners include Elbit Systems of America in Fort Worth TX; General Dynamics in Healdsburg CA; and Honeywell in Minneapolis MN.

Oct 6/09: MBDA announces the successful demonstration of its Semi-Active Laser-Guided Zuni rocket against a moving target at the US Navy’s China Lake test facilities.

June 22/09: MBDA Incorporated announces the successful demonstration of a Semi-Active Laser Guided 5-inch Zuni rocket at a static target, at the US Navy’s China Lake, CA test facilities.

Additional Readings & Sources

• GlobalSecurity.org – Hydra-70 Rocket System

• DID FOCUS Article – APKWS II “Hellfire Jr.” Hydra Rockets Enter SDD Phase. Focuses on the APKWS II competition, won by BAE Systems & Northrop Grumman.

• Aeronautics.RU (December 1999) – Unguided rockets get guidance. Mentions SYROCOT and Ugroza.

• US Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT, May 5/05) – Army Awards $900 Million Contract To Burlington’s General Dynamics. . . Leahy Instrumental In Securing Funds