Swedish defense prime Saab is exploring the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System as a cheaper armament option for its JAS 39 Gripen fighters, firm executives told Business Insider this week.
“The APKWS is in interest because other platforms are now integrating 70mm guided rockets. So we are, of course, eyeing that capability now,” Jussi Halmetoja, operations advisor for Saab’s air domain, said at the Singapore Airshow.
Halmetoja said the company was looking at ways to integrate the weapons system, which uses a guided version of the Hydra 70mm rocket, onto its older Gripen C and latest Gripen E models.
He made the comments as he and Mikael Franzên, chief marketing officer for the Gripen program, discussed the company’s observation from the Ukraine war that it needs more inexpensive weapons to counter uncrewed aerial systems.
“I mean, right now we are using very expensive weapons to kill very cheap drones,” Franzén said of traditional Western air combat.
He added that Saab is hoping to potentially equip the Gripen with systems that can fit multiple munitions onto a single hardpoint.
“If you can have four or 10 on each hardpoint, then you can kill a lot more drones,” Franzên said. The APWKS is typically mounted on aircraft with multilaunch pods.
Kyiv has signed a letter of intent with Sweden to potentially acquire up to 150 Gripen E fighters in the coming years. Ukraine’s air force has yet to fly the jet, which is touted as an ideal fighter for battling Russia because it’s built to operate from dispersed, rugged airfields and in the Arctic domain.
Kyiv is now flying much of its small fleet of F-16 Fighting Falcons from such small airfields, often moving the aircraft to increase their survivability.
But Franzén and Halmetoja said the Gripen can turn around much faster from dispersed airfields and be ready for a new mission within 10 minutes of landing.
Sweden, South Africa, Brazil, Thailand, Czechia, and Hungary are among the countries that fly the Gripen.
The APWKS, meanwhile, is already being deployed across various systems in Ukraine.
For example, the VAMPIRE counter-UAS systems feature a four-barrel launcher for the guided Hydra rockets that can be mounted on a pickup truck.
The cost of using one APKWS round is estimated at $20,000 to $35,000, compared to weapons more typically associated with modern fighters, such as the AIM-9 Sidewinder, which costs roughly $450,000, and the AIM-120 AMRAAM, which costs roughly $1 million.
Concerns about missile costs against cheaper drones have risen steadily since the war began, and as Russia has continuously grown its loitering munitions mass manufacturing.
Outside Ukraine, the US military has also been using the APWKS to recently fight drone attacks in the Middle East. The weapons system, loaded on American F-16s and F-15s, was responsible for roughly 40% of the drone kills scored by US forces against Houthi drones during last year’s Operation Rough Rider.
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