The U.S. Army fired a new type of airburst ammunition from an AH-64 Apache helicopter in December 2025, destroying drone targets without requiring a direct hit. The test of the 30x113mm XM1225 Aviation Proximity Explosive round, known as APEX, represents a significant shift in how attack helicopters could engage the small, cheap unmanned aircraft that have reshaped modern battlefields from Ukraine to the Middle East. Rather than expending expensive guided missiles against low-cost drones, the Army is betting that a smarter cannon round can do the job at a fraction of the cost.
Airburst Precision at Yuma Proving Ground
The core problem with shooting down small drones from a helicopter has always been geometry. A 30mm cannon round traveling at high velocity must strike a target that may be smaller than a dinner plate and moving unpredictably. The XM1225 APEX round sidesteps that challenge entirely. Instead of requiring metal-on-metal contact, the round uses a proximity fuze that detonates when it senses it is close enough to the target, throwing a cloud of lethal fragments outward. That design converts a near miss into a kill, which matters enormously when the targets are small, agile, and arriving in numbers.
The live-fire work at Yuma validated this concept under real flight conditions. An AH-64 Apache fired the APEX rounds against unmanned aerial targets in the Arizona desert, and the Army reported successful engagements. The choice of Yuma was deliberate: the installation’s vast restricted airspace and instrumented ranges allow detailed tracking of both the projectile and the target, giving engineers precise data on fuze performance, fragmentation patterns, and effective engagement distances. What the Army has not yet disclosed publicly are granular hit-rate statistics against varying swarm sizes or specific environmental conditions, which means the full tactical picture remains incomplete.
Why Missiles Alone Cannot Solve the Drone Problem
The APEX round did not emerge in isolation. The Army had already been stress-testing the Apache’s full weapons suite against drones well before the Yuma trial. During a separate counter-UAS demonstration at MCAS New River in North Carolina, AH-64E crews engaged unmanned targets using Joint Air-to-Ground Missiles, HELLFIRE variants, Hydra 70 rockets fitted with Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System guidance kits, and the standard 30mm cannon. According to Army reporting, the missile and rocket mix proved highly effective, with all missile systems destroying their targets and APKWS-guided rockets achieving three of four kills.
Those numbers look strong on paper, but they expose an economic mismatch that military planners cannot ignore. A single precision missile can cost orders of magnitude more than a commercially derived drone that might be assembled from off-the-shelf components. Firing such munitions at small quadcopters or fixed-wing hobbyist platforms is the definition of an unsustainable exchange ratio. Even the APKWS, which converts an unguided Hydra 70 rocket into a laser-guided weapon at lower cost than a full missile, still represents a significant per-round expense when dozens or hundreds of incoming drones need to be neutralized. The 30mm cannon is the cheapest tool on the Apache’s rack, and the APEX round is designed to make it dramatically more effective against aerial targets without ballooning the cost per engagement.
What a Proximity Fuze Changes Tactically
Proximity-fuzed ammunition is not a new idea. Naval forces have used it in anti-aircraft shells since World War II, and ground-based air defense guns have long relied on timed or proximity detonation. What is new is miniaturizing that technology into a 30mm round fired from a helicopter’s chain gun while maintaining reliability under the vibration, temperature swings, and acceleration forces unique to rotary-wing aviation. The engineering challenge is considerable: the fuze must arm after leaving the barrel, detect a small target at close range, and detonate within microseconds, all while withstanding the punishing environment inside an Apache’s M230 cannon.
If the APEX round proves reliable at scale, it changes the Apache’s role in a contested airspace. Instead of functioning primarily as a tank killer or close air support platform, the helicopter becomes a mobile counter-drone station capable of protecting ground forces from swarm attacks. That is a meaningful expansion of capability because current short-range air defense systems on the ground, while effective, are fixed or vehicle-mounted and cannot reposition as quickly as a helicopter. An Apache carrying a mixed load of APEX rounds and traditional high-explosive ammunition could shift between anti-armor and counter-drone roles during the same sortie, giving commanders flexibility that dedicated air defense platforms lack.
Gaps in the Public Record
For all the promise the APEX round shows, several important questions remain unanswered in the available reporting. The Army has not released detailed success-rate data from the Yuma test, so independent assessment of how the round performs against fast-moving or evasive targets is not yet possible. There is also no public timeline for when the XM1225 will move from developmental testing into full-rate production and fielding across Apache units. The “XM” designation itself signals that the round is still experimental, meaning it has not yet received the type classification needed for general issue.
Cost-per-round figures have not been disclosed either. While the APEX will almost certainly be cheaper than a guided missile, the proximity fuze adds complexity and expense compared to a standard M789 high-explosive dual-purpose round. If the price differential is modest, the trade-off is clearly favorable. If the APEX round costs several times more than conventional ammunition, commanders will face harder choices about how much to carry and when to use it. Imagery released through DVIDS, including photos of the Apache testing, confirms the event took place and provides visual evidence of proximity detonation effects, but it does not fill the analytical gaps that procurement officials and independent defense analysts will need addressed before drawing firm conclusions.
A Cheaper Kill in an Expensive Fight
The broader context here is a military establishment grappling with an explosion in the availability and sophistication of uncrewed systems. Small drones have become ubiquitous on modern battlefields, used for artillery spotting, electronic warfare, and direct attack with improvised munitions. They are cheap to build, easy to replace, and can be fielded in swarms that overwhelm traditional air defenses. For a force like the U.S. Army, which has invested heavily in exquisite, high-cost platforms and munitions, this poses a stark challenge: how to defend against mass-produced threats without bankrupting itself one intercept at a time.
In that environment, the appeal of a proximity-fuzed cannon round is obvious. APEX promises a way to turn an existing weapon, the Apache’s 30mm gun, into a more efficient anti-drone tool with relatively modest changes to the platform. If successful, it could complement ground-based jammers, lasers, and interceptor drones in a layered defense, providing a responsive option that can maneuver with frontline units. Yet the path from successful test shots in Arizona to routine use in combat zones is rarely straightforward. Reliability across thousands of rounds, integration with fire-control software, training for crews to employ the new capability effectively, and the inevitable trade-offs in ammunition loadouts will all shape how transformative APEX ultimately becomes.
For now, the December 2025 trial marks a notable step in the Army’s attempt to restore cost-effective control of the low-altitude air domain. The service has demonstrated that an Apache can destroy drones with airburst cannon fire rather than relying solely on missiles and guided rockets. The question is whether the XM1225 can move quickly enough from experimental status to widespread fielding to matter in the conflicts where drones are already changing the rules of engagement. Until more data is released on performance, cost, and production plans, APEX remains a promising but still partially obscured answer to one of the most pressing tactical problems of the current era.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
