The Eurofighter Typhoon, one of NATO’s frontline fighter jets, has test-fired 70 mm APKWS laser-guided rockets in a trial aimed at giving the aircraft a cheap, precise weapon for shooting down small drones. The test, reported by multiple defense trade outlets in early 2026, marks the first known attempt to pair the fourth-generation fighter with a munition originally designed for helicopters and light attack planes, and it reflects a broader scramble across Western air forces to find affordable answers to the drone threat exposed by the war in Ukraine.
No official statement from the four-nation Eurofighter consortium or its partner companies has confirmed the specific test parameters. But the underlying weapon system, BAE Systems’ Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System, carries a deep track record that makes the pairing credible and worth watching closely.
Why APKWS and why now
The logic is straightforward: shooting down a drone that costs a few thousand dollars with a missile that costs several hundred thousand dollars is not sustainable. The AIM-9X Sidewinder, a standard short-range air-to-air missile carried by Typhoons and other NATO fighters, costs upward of $400,000 per round. The IRIS-T, used by German and other European Typhoon operators, falls in a similar price range. An APKWS rocket, by contrast, is estimated to cost roughly $30,000 per round, according to figures cited in U.S. defense budget documents.
That cost gap matters because the battlefield has changed. In Ukraine, Russia and Ukraine alike have deployed thousands of small, expendable drones for reconnaissance, strike, and harassment. NATO planners have watched those operations closely and concluded that future European airspace defense will require interceptors that can be fired in volume without draining weapons stockpiles or budgets.
APKWS works by adding a semi-active laser guidance section to the standard unguided 70 mm Hydra rocket, a munition already manufactured in enormous quantities for the U.S. military and allied forces. The seeker homes in on a laser spot placed on the target, turning an area-effect rocket into a precision weapon. BAE Systems demonstrated in 2022 that APKWS could reliably hit agile, high-speed Class-2 military drones, a category that includes unmanned systems weighing up to roughly 55 pounds, in ground-to-air test firings.
Production scale and U.S. investment
One reason the Typhoon trial is plausible is that APKWS is no longer an experimental program. BAE Systems announced in 2025 that it had delivered its 100,000th APKWS laser guidance kit, a milestone that places the system among the most widely produced precision munitions in Western inventories.
The U.S. Navy’s Naval Air Systems Command has further underwritten the program with a $1.743 billion indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract (N0001925D0018) covering production and delivery of up to 55,000 additional APKWS II units across Full Rate Production Lots 13 through 17. That volume signals an industrial base operating at scale, one that could absorb new European orders without major production bottlenecks.
For Typhoon operators considering the weapon, the existing supply chain removes one of the biggest risks in any new integration: the question of whether the manufacturer can actually deliver enough rounds to make the capability operationally meaningful.
What the Typhoon trial still needs to prove
Firing a rocket from a stable ground launcher and firing one from a fighter jet traveling at several hundred knots are fundamentally different challenges. The Typhoon test, assuming it occurred as reported, would have had to address several technical hurdles that no public source has yet detailed.
First, rocket separation. At high airspeeds, aerodynamic forces acting on a small 70 mm rocket as it leaves the launch pod can affect its initial trajectory. The APKWS guidance section must acquire the laser spot quickly enough to correct any deviation before the rocket flies past a small, close-range target like a drone.
Second, laser designation. The APKWS seeker requires a compatible laser source to illuminate the target. Fighter targeting pods such as the Litening or Sniper are designed primarily for air-to-ground work, tracking vehicles and structures on the earth’s surface. Holding a stable laser spot on a small, maneuvering drone in open sky, potentially against cloud backgrounds that reduce contrast, is a different problem. Whether the Typhoon used its own onboard sensors, a laser from another aircraft, or a ground-based designator has not been disclosed.
Third, fire control software. Integrating a new weapon onto a combat aircraft requires updates to the jet’s mission computer so that the pilot can select, aim, and release the munition through the standard cockpit interface. For a multinational program like Typhoon, which involves separate software standards across partner nations, this process can take years of certification work.
None of these challenges are insurmountable. Helicopters and turboprop attack aircraft already fire APKWS routinely, and the physics of laser guidance are well understood. But until the Eurofighter consortium or a national defense ministry publishes test results with specifics on engagement range, altitude, success rate, and target type, the air-to-air performance of APKWS from a fast jet remains unverified.
The bigger picture for European air defense
The Typhoon-APKWS trial does not exist in isolation. Across NATO, militaries are racing to field layered counter-drone systems that combine electronic warfare, directed-energy weapons, and low-cost kinetic interceptors. The United Kingdom’s Martlet lightweight missile, originally developed for helicopters, has been tested in a similar anti-drone role. The United States is investing heavily in high-energy laser prototypes. And several nations are exploring adapted autocannon ammunition with proximity fuzes.
APKWS occupies a specific niche in that landscape: a guided kinetic round cheap enough to fire in quantity, small enough to carry in large numbers on a single aircraft, and precise enough to hit a fast-moving target the size of a small drone. If the Typhoon integration proves successful and moves toward operational fielding, a single fighter sortie could theoretically engage dozens of drones using a rocket pod, preserving its Sidewinders and beyond-visual-range missiles for higher-value threats.
No European defense ministry has publicly announced funding or a procurement timeline for equipping operational Typhoon squadrons with APKWS. Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Spain, the four Typhoon partner nations, would each need to make separate budget and certification decisions. The gap between a successful test and a fielded capability can span years.
Still, the combination of a proven, mass-produced guidance kit and a growing operational need makes the Typhoon-APKWS pairing one of the more closely watched counter-drone developments in European defense circles as of spring 2026. What happens next depends on official test data, political will, and whether the economics of drone warfare continue to push NATO toward smaller, cheaper interceptors fired from its most capable platforms.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
