Air Force Fighters Use New Laser-Guided Rockets to Shoot Down Houthi Drones
March 19, 2025 | By Chris Gordon
U.S. Air Force fighters have been using laser-guided rockets to down Houthi drones that are attacking ships in the Red Sea, as the U.S. military seeks to drive down the cost of defeating cheap uncrewed systems, officials said.
The system is the AGR-20 Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS)—Hydra-70 rockets that have been converted with a laser guidance kit to turn them into precision-guided munitions. It was designed for air-to-ground use but has now been used to shoot down drones, U.S. officials said.
Those rockets cost less than $40,000, the officials say, a significant advancement in driving down the cost of defeating the hundreds of drone attacks launched by the Houthis, as well as Iranian-aligned militants in Iraq and Syria. Iran has also launched drones at Israel that the Air Force has shot down, though the only confirmed use of rocket systems has been against the Houthis.
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/air-force-fighters-laser-guided-rockets-houthi-drones/
