Author Topic: F-16s Have Been Using Laser-Guided Rockets To Shoot Down Houthi Drones  (Read 109 times)

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Offline rangerrebew

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F-16s Have Been Using Laser-Guided Rockets To Shoot Down Houthi Drones

Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System rockets now officially have a combat-proven air-to-air capability that could be valuable beyond the Red Sea.
Joseph Trevithick, Howard Altman

Posted 56 Minutes Ago
 
U.S. Air Force F-16 Vipers have been using 70mm laser-guided rockets to down Houthi drones during operations in and around the Red Sea in the past year.
 
U.S. Air Force F-16 Vipers have been using 70mm laser-guided rockets to down Houthi drones during operations in and around the Red Sea in the past year. The service first announced it had demonstrated the ability to use Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System II (APKWS II) rockets, originally developed to engage targets on the ground, as lower-cost, more numerous air-to-air weapons back in 2019, but this was just in testing. No operational capability has been disclosed, until now.
 
A U.S. military official exclusively confirmed the use of APKWS II in the air-to-air role to TWZ. The official could not immediately confirm how many of the rockets have been used in this manner, how many Houthi drones have been shot down as a result, or the exact date of the first use of this capability in combat. The Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen began launching drone, missile, and other attacks against foreign warships and commercial vessels in and around the Red Sea, as well as targets in Israel, in October 2023.


A pair of US Air Force F-16Cs on patrol somewhere in the Middle East on Jan. 25, 2025. The jet seen at the rear is armed with a 70mm rocket pod, as well as other weapons. USAF
The APWKS II air-to-air capability was first employed last year “as one of many options for countering the Houthi UAS [uncrewed aerial systems] threat,” the official told us. “It is a lower-cost option compared to the AIM-9X. That lower cost is one of the benefits of using it.”

https://www.twz.com/air/f-16s-have-been-using-laser-guided-rockets-to-shoot-down-houthi-drones
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