Palletized Anti-Drone Missiles

The Ukrainian Navy’s press service recently released footage showcasing the combat effectiveness of their air defense units, marking the confirmed debut of a new Counter-Unmanned Air System (UAS) weapon system developed by L3Harris for Ukraine.

The video captured the moment when a Russian kamikaze drone, identified as the Shahed-136, was successfully shot down by an Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) laser-guided rocket launched from the Vampire weapon system.

The Vehicle Agnostic Modular Palletized ISR Rocket Equipment (VAMPIRE) system is a compact and palletized rocket-launching platform equipped with modern sensors and four-shot APKWS launchers designed for installation on flatbed trucks. Initially utilized by the U.S. Navy and Army for engaging air-to-ground targets, the VAMPIRE system introduces a laser-guided rocket capable of effectively countering unmanned aerial threats.

The Vampire is a low-cost and easy-to-assemble weapon compared to other counter-drone measures, such as electronic warfare technologies or surface-to-air missile systems.

From here. According to the Wikipedia link above:

The AGR-20 Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) is a design conversion of Hydra 70 unguided rockets with a laser guidance kit to turn them into precision-guided munitions (PGMs). APKWS is approximately one-third the cost and one-third the weight of the current inventory of laser-guided weapons, has a lower yield more suitable for avoiding collateral damage, and takes one quarter of the time for ordnance personnel to load and unload.

APKWS missiles entered service in 2012. Each missile costs $22,000. Each missile weighs 32 pounds, is 6' 1.8" long, and is 2.75 inches in diameter. It was originally designed to be launched from helicopters and ground attack fixed wing aircraft. It has a range of 0.68 to 3.11 miles (1.1-5 km) when launched from a helicopter and 1.2-6.8 miles (2-11 km) when launched from a fixed wing aircraft. Its top speed is about Mach 3. The WESCAM MX-10 RSTA sensor turret that goes with it weighs 43 pounds. It isn't clear exactly how much the launch tube, mount and power supply weighs, but the entire package is in the low hundreds of pounds. The entire system costs $1.6 to $2.9 million U.S. dollars each based upon the $40 million U.S. dollar price paid by Ukraine for 14-24 four missile launch systems (it isn't clear how many missiles are included in each system). As a laser guided weapon, it is probably quite accurate, at least within a line of sight from the delivery point, making it basically a one-shot, one-kill system, unlike cannon artillery.

The big deal, in this case, is that you can drop the system in any commercial off the shelf pickup truck or flat bed truck or in a Humvee (or for example, the deck of any boat or ship or train or stationary air defense battery on a rooftop or in a parking lot or plaza or lawn) without having to have a dedicated vehicle designed to use the system. The defense contractor that manufactures it claims that:

* Installation can be completed in approximately two hours by two people using common tools.

* Everything is on the pallet. Power supply eliminates the need for a 24-volt alternator on the vehicle.

You could probably mount it on a large speed boat that could escort other watercraft that lack that capability, or on a merchant ship to give it its own air defense system against armed drones (and perhaps also to eliminate small pirate speedboats that engage the ship as well), or even on a yacht. It also makes sense for military transport ships and amphibious transport ships that otherwise like significant offensive or defensive capabilities. 

While these missiles were designed as low end air to ground missiles, the VAMPIRE system is intended for air defense and can be used to provide ground to ground capabilities. They can also be used as air to air missiles for attack aircraft or light ground assault aircraft that would otherwise lack that capability entirely.

The missile payload is probably too small to be very effective against tank, infantry fighting vehicles, bunkers, armored personnel carriers, but would probably be sufficient to seriously disable, damage or destroy a large armed drone, helicopter, low altitude ground attack aircraft, mobile artillery piece, speed boat, unarmored ground vehicle, a sniper's nest, an unfortified storage unit (perhaps for ammunition or fuel), or an unfortified aircraft hanger.

This system has much in common with Iran's shipping container ballistic missile system that holds two long range missiles, that provides easy to set up, powerful, accurate, modern missiles in a delivery system agnostic manner. Iran's system can be put on a ship, a train car, a truck, or in a parking lot, and is small enough to be delivered by a C-130 short range military transport aircraft or the equivalent (but probably not by helicopter).

These palletized or shipping container based weapons system would be very hard to interdict. And, the range of the weapon itself also makes interdiction hard. In the case of the Iranian system, it is sufficient to get the shipping container anywhere within a thousand miles or so of the target. 

The VAMPIRE system, at least, can operate from outside the range of a tank's main gun, or a sniper's rifle.