Free Republic

Laser-guided 70mm Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System II (APKWS II) rockets have become the U.S. Air Force’s principal air-to-air weapon against drone threats in the Middle East. Air Force F-16 Vipers in the region first began using the rockets operationally in the anti-role last year, which TWZ was first to report, and that capability has now been extended to the F-15E Strike Eagle and A-10 Warthog.“It’s our primary weapon against a drone,” Air Force Lt. Gen. Derek France, head of Air Forces Central (AFCENT), the service’s top command in the Middle East, told TWZ‘s Howard Altman on the sidelines of...

A video of the laser-guided Kornet anti-tank rocket belies Hamas claims it did not know a school bus was targeted in last week’s attack that critically wounded Daniel Viflic, still hanging on to life. The Kornet is manufactured in Russia and reached Hamas terrorists in Gaza via Iran or Syria. Damascus was clearly marked as the destination of the advanced rockets that Hizbullah employed in the Second Lebanon War. The weapon gave Hizbullah a strategic and psychological advantage. Israeli intelligence, severely hampered since Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered a hasty withdrawal from the “security region” in southern Lebanon in 2000,...

US will supply sophisticated laser-guided-bomb kits, 12 American-made surveillance drones and 18 late-model F-16 fighters to boost Pakistani forces capability to strike in remote tribal areas, a development which could spark unease in New Delhi. The new arms supply, Wall Street Journal said was part of efforts by Pentagon to boost Pakistani forces capability to take on Taliban and Al Qaeda militants. Islamabad is also to receive equipment capable of converting 1,000 traditional munitions into "smart bombs" that can strike targets with precisions, the paper reported. With this new arms aid, US counterinsurgency assistance fund for Pakistan is slated to...

Aviators from the U.S. Marine Corps completed the integrated test phase of the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) program Jan. 5, firing five rounds against stationary and moving targets. All five shots hit their intended targets within 2 meters of the laser designator’s spot. In the final series of shots in integrated testing, five laser-guided rockets were fired from a variety of distances from a Marine AH-1W Cobra helicopter. Four of the shots were against moving targets traveling at a range of speeds, while the fifth shot was against a stationary target board. The program now moves into an...

The U.S. Air Force has successfully tested its new Paveway II Plus laser guided bomb. The existing Paveway II bomb has a range of 14 kilometers and will hit within less than half a meter of where the laser designator is reflecting off the target. Paveway is actually a guidance kit (costing about $20,000) that is fitted to a dumb bomb, turning it into a glide bomb that homes in on the reflected laser light. The Paveway II Plus is more accurate and reliable, but the exact figures are classified. Laser guided bombs have been in use since the 1960s....