Well there goes the shahed strategy being effective!
Interesting. It seems like a copy of the same concept as the US APKWS which is just a cheap 70mm rocket with a guidance kit fitted to the front. I’m not surprised that someone else did the same thing since the whole point of the concept is that it’s cheap and easy to roll out. I suspect that we’ll see these “rockets” (missiles?) used for ground based air defenses before too long.
No not really. APKWS or JDAM are retrofits of old weapons with new guidance package. Belgium has no large stockpile of old unguided weapons so they get to design the entire thing from ground up. The principle is similar, its a laser guided beam riding missile shot from a heli or a jet, but APKWS sensors are on leading edge of winglets and this new thing has sensor in nose like a tiny Stugna. overall drop-in APKWS replacement with 10k manufactured per month target
I suspect that we’ll see these “rockets” (missiles?) used for ground based air defenses before too long.
there’s already a ground based launcher for APKWS and FZ275 is compatible with it too
That’s great to see, but I think build rate will still be the issue. BAE in the US is at ~25,000 units/year and Thales Belgium says 2,500 by years end, so even a 5th of the supply will surpass that if sent to the Ukraine. Now I won’t say Trump won’t be anass about it.
The more the merrier for Ukraine, whatever it takes. They’ll need it this winter especially, if Russia doesn’t financially collapse or decide to do an ambiguous attack on a NATO state to save itzelf. (Yes I realize the latter makes no sense, but it makes sense to them apparently.)
To be honest I think the best use of these is to provide regional cover for slower moving helicopters and prop aircraft that can take on the brunt of the swarm, the F16 is there to look into the swarm and identifying fast moving rocket powered flying bombs and other dangerous incoming threats and tackle them before the wave hits the other air defenses.
