The United States Air Force moved unusually fast to give the F-15E fighter a new, affordable tool for fighting cheap, lethal drones.
In early September, the Air Force Test Center said it had put BAE Systems’ APKWS II rockets on an F-15E and run multiple live-fire demonstrations.
The flight-test portion was done in just nine days, a fraction of the 18 months a program like this would normally take.
Frontline Eagles were reportedly flying with APKWS pods in an unspecified region within a week of those demos.
That speed matters. The service said the push was driven by an urgent operational need. The result is the same weapon many other platforms already carry, now adapted to a jet that brings range, speed, and payload to the counter-UAS problem.
Outside the United States, countries including Saudi Arabia, Japan, Israel, South Korea, Singapore, Qatar, and Indonesia operate different variants of the F-15 Eagle Fighter Jet.
Fast-Track Integration
The Air Force framed this as an urgent, safety-first effort. Brigadier General Mark Massaro, commander of the 96th Test Wing, put it plainly, “We made it a top priority to field this new capability as quickly and safely as possible.”
Instead of running the usual sequential certification steps, test engineers combined multiple airworthiness checks with weapon demonstrations and compressed the schedule.
That is rare. Flight-worthiness, weapons integration, and safety certifications typically move at a deliberate pace because there is no real substitute for careful testing.
Compressing those steps increases pressure on engineers and maintainers, but the Air Force decided the risk was worth taking because of growing threats using inexpensive unmanned aerial systems.
Officials say the integration effort finished in May, though it was only publicly revealed on 3 September. The speed of the effort, and the fact that frontline aircraft started carrying pods almost immediately, shows the service wanted a deployable solution now, not later.
How They Mounted Rockets On F-15E
On paper, APKWS is a mature 70mm, laser-guided rocket. But mounting it on an F-15E was not plug and play.
Images released by the test center show an F-15E carrying six APKWS pods, three on each underwing station. That configuration required a mounting approach that did not previously exist for the Strike Eagle.
“As an already-proven way to mount the rockets onto an F-15 did not exist,” Colonel Alec Spencer from the Seek Eagle office explained. The integration team reached back into the tool chest and repurposed a 1970s-era triple ejector rack. That rack allows three weapons to be attached to a single hard point. The team paired those racks with legacy LAU-131 launchers, which actually fire the rockets.
There is a small practical drama in that work. Some of the hardware came from the Air Force’s maintenance “boneyard” at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona.
Aircraft and parts that have been retired or cannibalized for spares were tapped to provide racks that could be returned to service quickly. It is a good example of pragmatic problem solving; adapt what you have, test it carefully, and get capability to the field.
Making The Rockets & Jet Talk
Getting the racks and launchers on the jet is only half the job. Weapons need to be integrated with the aircraft’s fire control and avionics so a pilot can select and cue them, and so the jet can supply the right guidance and safety interlocks.
That was part of the rapid work. The test team developed a communications solution so the APKWS pods could interact with the F-15E fire control system. Engineers tested both the physical carriage and the data and electrical interfaces simultaneously while evaluating airworthiness.
That concurrency shaved months off the schedule, but it also required close coordination between flight test, engineering, and operational units.
What APKWS Brings To Counter-Drone Fight
In US service, the laser-guided APKWS II is designated the AGR-20F. It is a modern upgrade to the familiar 2.75-inch, or 70mm, rocket, adding a laser guidance kit so the warhead can home on a painted or laser-designated target.
That precision is what makes APKWS attractive against small, slow-moving unmanned aerial systems.
The bigger operational problem is economics. Many of the unmanned threats being used in conflicts and attacks are cheap relative to the missiles designed to defeat them.
Iran-sourced Shahed-136 style loitering munitions are a prominent example. They have long range, low cost, and can be used in numbers.
Pentagon figures often cited put the Shahed’s range at around 1,350 nautical miles and its top speed near 100 knots. They are small and inexpensive compared with an air-to-air missile.
A recent estimate from the Center for Strategic and International Studies put the cost of a Shahed at roughly $35,000.
APKWS rockets come in at a similar order of magnitude, about $35,000 each. That parity matters. Using a $1 million-plus air-to-air missile to shoot down a drone that costs a few tens of thousands of dollars is expensive in both money and munition inventory.
APKWS gives pilots an option that is more proportional to the target, and it keeps higher-end missiles available for faster or more complex threats.
Procurement & Production
The Pentagon is clearly betting on APKWS.
The US military signed a $1.7 billion contract with BAE for 55,000 munitions, a large expansion over earlier buys. BAE says it can produce up to 20,000 APKWS rounds a year and has delivered more than 50,000 to date.
That scale matters for sustained operations. If APKWS is going to be the go-to response for large numbers of cheap UAS, the military needs both steady production and distribution across platforms. The recent contract suggests the Pentagon expects to use this rocket in quantity and to field it widely.
Platforms & Current Operational Use
APKWS is not new to many aircraft. BAE lists the F-16, F/A-18, A-10, and AV-8B among fixed-wing fighters cleared to carry AGR-20F pods.
A number of rotary-wing and smaller fixed-wing types can also host the weapon, and ground-based counter-UAS systems have adopted APKWS as well.
Operationally, the weapon has already shown its value. In March, U.S. Central Command released gun camera footage that showed an F-16 using an AGR-20F rocket to shoot down a one-way attack UAS launched by Houthi forces.
That episode illustrates how air forces can already use APKWS in real engagements. Integrating the rocket onto the F-15E expands that capability to a longer-range, heavier-payload platform.
What Does It Mean for F-15E & Wider Force Posture?
The F-15E is a twin-engine strike fighter with range, speed, and payload that make it useful for many missions. Adding APKWS gives strike batches a short-range precision option for small, slow-moving threats without forcing them to rely on heavier missiles.
For commanders, that is a useful tool; it widens the set of options available when pilots face swarms or inexpensive loitering munitions.
There are trade-offs. Rapid integration and concurrent testing mean engineers must be meticulous to avoid leaving gaps in certification. Fielding a capability quickly can save lives and protect assets, but it also puts a premium on follow-up testing, sustainment plans, and pilot training to ensure crews can use the weapon safely and effectively.
Bottom Line
The F-15E APKWS integration shows how the Air Force adapts existing tools under pressure. By repurposing older racks, reusing legacy launchers, and running concurrent tests, the service delivered an affordable, precision counter-UAS option in weeks rather than months.
If the small-weapon threat continues to grow, having a lower-cost, widely producible option like APKWS available on more platforms will be a tactical advantage.
This is not a silver bullet. But it is a clear and practical step, matching the cost of the response to the cost of the threat, keeping higher-end missiles in reserve for more capable targets, and giving pilots another tool when facing swarms.
The speed of the effort tells you how seriously the Air Force now treats the unmanned threat.
- Shubhangi Palve is a defense and aerospace journalist. Before joining the EurAsian Times, she worked for ET Prime. She has over 15 years of extensive experience in the media industry, spanning print, electronic, and online domains.
- Contact the author at shubhapalve (at) gmail.com
