U.S. Sending Laser-guided Rockets to Down Iranian Shahed Drones in Ukraine

The United States is sending experimental Counter-UAS laser-guided rocket systems to Ukraine in an effort to down Iranian Shahed drones that are used to devastating effect by Russian Forces.

The 10 mobile C-UAS laser-guided rocket systems are included in the latest $2.6 billion military aid package to Ukraine announced by the Pentagon on Wednesday. This reportedly followed a January competition held by the U.S. Army, looking to buy Shahed-136 UAVs.

SAIC, which participated in the competition, is in the running to send ten of the weapons to Ukraine, a company representative told Defense One on the sidelines of the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium last week.

Russia has used Shahed-136s to attack not just Ukrainian military forces, but also enough civilian infrastructure to cause blackouts across the besieged country. Ukraine has downed many of the Iranian-made drones, which cost about $20,000 apiece, but sometimes is forced to use $500,000 air-defense missiles to do so.

The Army and one other competitor in the test, Invariant Systems, did not confirm to Defense One the test was conducted to provide systems to Ukraine, but confirmed other details that support SAIC’s statements.

Contracting documents provided by the Army indicate that the test objective was to destroy Class Three drones—that is, aircraft that weigh more than 55 pounds. The Shahed-136 weighs about 440 pounds.

Other details in the contracting document also conform to information provided by SAIC. For instance, the documents say a winning design should be ready to ship to partner nations within 30 to 90 days of a contract award—roughly the amount of time between the January test and the April news that the systems were being sent to Ukraine.

The contract also says the systems might be funded with Title 22 authorities, which are used to fund security assistance to Ukraine.

A company representative told the outlet that the BAE’s APKWS laser-guided rockets, achieved a 100% hit rate in January tests. Each of these rockets come with a price tag of $30,000.

The system also includes a M240 machine-gun mount and an electronic warfare system that can take control of a commercial drone, including any DJI-brand system not operating with advanced encryption.

Greg Fortier, the vice president of SAIC’s Army Business Unit, told the outlet that their system acquired the drone at over six miles away and struck it at three miles, much farther than the Army’s 1.2-mile requirement.

Fortier said SAIC and Invariant had the best results in the test.