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- The US military published new footage showing its aircraft using rockets to destroy Houthi drones.
- The footage underscores how US fighter jets can use munitions that are cheaper than air-to-air missiles.
- The air-to-air engagement comes amid a new chapter in the Red Sea conflict.
The US military published a video on Wednesday offering a rare look at an air-to-air kill from the Red Sea fight. It shows American fighter aircraft eliminating Houthi drones with cheap, guided rockets costing only a fraction of the price of top air-to-air missiles.
The hit highlights a cost-effective way for American jets to take down Houthi drones, which have been a persistent threat, along with missiles, for well over a year now.
US Central Command, which oversees Middle East operations, said Wednesday that a US fighter aircraft shot down a Houthi one-way attack drone using APKWS laser-guided rockets. The footage shows two drones exploding above the water.
The AGR-20 FALCO Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System, or APKWS, are unguided Hydra 70 2.75-inch rockets equipped with laser guidance kits to turn them into precision weapons. The rockets are nearly 19 inches long and less than 3 inches in diameter, making them quite slim.
Gen. David Allvin, the Air Force Chief of Staff, said the APKWS costs just $35,000 a piece — a fraction of one of the air-to-air missiles that could have been used instead to take down the drone. For instance, he said, the AIM-9 missile costs around $500,000, while the AIM-120 is more than double that at around $1 million.
The cost of the rockets is more closely aligned with the price tag of a Houthi drone, which is likely in the range of tens of thousands of dollars. Officials have said that using an expensive missile to intercept this kind of threat is on the wrong side of the cost curve.
“More savings. More lethality. More Air Force,” Allvin wrote on social media on Wednesday.
CENTCOM did not disclose when or where the engagement occurred, nor did it say what aircraft used the APKWS to shoot down the Houthi drones. These rockets can be fired from a range of aircraft. A US official told The War Zone earlier this year that US Air Force F-16s had used the rockets against Houthi drones.
Years earlier, the Air Force tested the air-to-ground rockets as a cheaper air-to-air kill solution.
The footage comes amid a fresh campaign of US airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen. The Trump administration has vowed to intensify its efforts to deter the rebel group from attacking military and civilian vessels transiting key Middle East shipping lanes.
The new campaign began on Saturday, with CENTCOM saying that it had “initiated a series of operations consisting of precision strikes against Iran-backed Houthi targets across Yemen to defend American interests, deter enemies, and restore freedom of navigation.”
Air Force Lt. Gen Alexus Grynkewich, the director of operations for the Joint Staff, said Monday that the initial wave of strikes hit over 30 Houthi targets at multiple locations in Yemen, including training sites, drone infrastructure, weapons storage facilities, and command centers.
Grynkewich told reporters at a briefing that the operation extended into Sunday and Monday and would continue for several days “until we achieve the president’s objectives.”
CENTCOM has published footage this week showing flight operations aboard the USS Harry S. Truman — the latest US aircraft carrier to see combat against the Houthis — as well as missile launches from warships in its strike group.
And President Donald Trump has suddenly taken an aggressive approach to the Houthi conflict after a period of relative quiet in the Red Sea. He has vowed to keep striking the rebels and even threatened to go after Iran, their main supporter and provider of military assistance.
“Tremendous damage has been inflicted upon the Houthi barbarians, and watch how it will get progressively worse — It’s not even a fair fight, and never will be. They will be completely annihilated!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday.
