The top item of the latest aid program announced by the United States last week is the "Laser Guided Rocket System." U.S. guided rockets could equip the Bayraktar TB2 fleet of U.S. drones, which may now be starving of missiles.
The Baika drone was one of the unexpected successes achieved on the battlefield. Turkey-supplied drones, similar to smaller American Predators, caused heavy damage to the vehicles, flying at night and attacking using laser-guided intelligent micromunition (MAM) missiles also supplied by Turkey.
While other countries have aided with missiles and other armaments, Turkey may have cut off supplies of Baika-equipped MAM missiles.
Although the aid has a large number of javelins and other anti-tank missiles, these missiles are not suitable for launch in the air and are not easy to combine with drones. The U.S. can provide Hellfire missiles, but these missiles weigh twice as much as MAMs and are clearly not suitable for equipment on Baika drones.
But the U.S. has a convenient alternative: a lightweight laser-guided weapon that can be launched from an airplane. This is advanced Precision Kill Weapon II,or APKWS.
ApKWS is an upgraded version of the U.S. Military's large inventory of old 2.75-inch (70 mm) rockets. These 25-pound rockets were originally developed in the 1940s and carried by attack aircraft and helicopters, launched in the form of 7 or 19 pods to cover an area of firepower.
APKWS added laser guidance in the form of four steering-related seekers on the rocket's fins. It works with a standard laser specifier, so the idea is that the operator only needs to calibrate the target and the rocket will aim at it without the need for other technology.
Although simple in theory, the completion of the APKWS project proved difficult in practice for the company behind it, BAE Systems, which lasted 16 years and had many problems before it was successfully put into operation in 2012.
APKWS was used on the battlefield by the U.S. Marine Corps as a lightweight, low-cost alternative to Hellfire. It has a range of more than 3 miles from helicopters and 7 miles from fixed-wing aircraft (a 30 percent increase through a 2021 software upgrade).
APKWS is designed as a plug-and-play system that can be easily added to existing aircraft. Because it uses standard launchers, the APKWS doesn't require platform integration or aircraft modifications, and because it's loaded and launched like a standard 2.75-inch rocket, it requires little additional pilot or ordnance training.
Baika has never launched APKWS. But according to the manufacturer's promotional materials, it is compatible with the CİRİT missile produced by the Turkish company Rocket Mountain (Roketsan). Conceptually identical to the APKWS, the CİRİT is a 2.75-inch laser-guided rocket capable of being launched from existing aircraft-mounted rails and pods, and is compatible with NATO standard laser specifiers.
The APKWS's lighter weight gives it an advantage in terms of loading: Baika may be able to carry six or more APKWS compared to four MAMs.
Being able to provide weapons to ensure that The Byka drone can continue to fight seems like a good short-term measure, and providing APKWS may be the best way to do that.