L3Harris wins $98M to make APKWS rockets deadlier against drones

A $48.5 million contract awarded to L3Harris to produce proximity fuzes for the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System is the latest signal that the U.S. military has found its answer to the drone swarm problem, and is now scaling that answer as fast as American manufacturing can deliver it.

The Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division, the Navy’s primary contracting authority for fuzes and energetics, awarded the contract to L3Harris Fuzing and Ordnance Systems of Cincinnati, Ohio. The award covers proximity fuzes designed specifically to upgrade the APKWS, the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System, for air-to-air engagement of drones and cruise missiles. If all contract options are exercised, the total value reaches $98.4 million, with work running through September 2028. Funding comes from Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps ammunition procurement accounts, split roughly 68 percent Air Force and 28 percent Navy and Marine Corps, a multiservice funding structure that reflects how broadly the upgraded APKWS capability has been adopted across the joint force.

The APKWS is a 70-millimeter (2.75-inch) laser-guided rocket that began its military life as a ground-attack weapon, a precision upgrade to the unguided Hydra 70 rocket pods that military helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft have carried for decades. The guidance kit, built by BAE Systems, slots between the rocket’s warhead at the front and its motor at the rear, adding distributed laser sensors that detect reflected laser energy from a targeting pod and steer the rocket toward the illuminated point. What the proximity fuze developed by L3Harris adds to this system is the ability to defeat aerial targets without requiring a direct hit. Rather than relying on physical contact to trigger the warhead, the proximity fuze detects when the rocket has passed close enough to a target and detonates, sending fragmentation into the drone or missile flying nearby. For a fast-moving or maneuvering aerial target, the proximity fuze is the difference between a near-miss and a kill.

The air-to-air configuration of APKWS, designated AGR-20F in its current form, first saw combat use when U.S. Air Force F-16s operating over the Red Sea began intercepting Houthi drones in 2024 using APKWS rockets loaded with proximity fuzes. The operational concept proved itself under fire: APKWS costs approximately $20,000 to $30,000 per round all-in, compared to roughly $400,000 for an AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missile, and carries its guidance kit and proximity fuze in a package that fits on the same 70-millimeter launcher pod already standard on most U.S. military aircraft. A single F-16 carrying six seven-tube launcher pods can carry 42 APKWS rockets, compared to the two or four dedicated air-to-air missiles it would otherwise bring, multiplying the available shots against a drone swarm by an order of magnitude.

The proximity fuze L3Harris produces for APKWS incorporates radio frequency sensor electronics developed by Technology Solutions Company, known as TSC, integrated into an L3Harris safe and arm device. The Joint Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office, the Pentagon body responsible for coordinating the military’s counter-drone capabilities, completed testing of this fuze configuration against Group 3 drones, the category covering larger unmanned aircraft typically flying above 1,200 meters (3,940 feet) at speeds over 185 kilometers per hour (115 miles per hour), and confirmed 100 percent effectiveness during a demonstration at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. That test result justified the follow-on production contract now being awarded to L3Harris, which was procured directly as a follow-on to prototype development completed under a separate Other Transaction Agreement rather than through competitive bidding.

In February 2026, the Air Force awarded BAE Systems a $145 million contract to develop and deliver an upgraded dual-mode version of APKWS for counter-drone operations, designated the FALCO program, which adds an infrared seeker alongside the existing laser guidance to create a fire-and-forget capability. In that configuration, the pilot illuminates the target briefly to initiate the engagement and the rocket then continues tracking autonomously, freeing the aircraft to maneuver or engage the next threat without maintaining continuous laser designation. The Marine Corps Aviation Plan 2026 confirmed plans to integrate the air-to-air APKWS variant onto the F/A-18C/D Hornet fleet, giving the Corps’ older fighters a high-density, low-cost counter-drone capability that keeps them operationally relevant through their planned retirement around 2030 while reducing pressure on newer F-35 squadrons that carry far fewer total weapons per sortie.

The APKWS proximity fuze has also entered service through the L3Harris VAMPIRE counter-drone system, a vehicle-mounted weapons station that combines a targeting sensor with an APKWS launcher to create a ground-based drone interceptor. VAMPIRE units reached Ukraine in 2023, where they have been used against Russian drone attacks, and the same proximity fuze technology enabling air-launched APKWS to intercept drones also applies to the VAMPIRE’s ground-launched rockets.