US fighter jets used cheap laser-guided rockets for nearly half the drone kills during Operation Rough Rider
Gen. Michael Kurilla told lawmakers Tuesday that F-16 and F-15 fighter jets fired the APKWS rockets.
Military leaders have stressed the importance of making air defense cheaper compared to the threat.
US fighter jets used laser-guided rockets to destroy nearly half the drones that were shot down during the most recent big operation against the Iran-backed Houthis, a top commander told lawmakers on Tuesday.
Gen. Michael Kurilla, who oversees Middle East operations at US Central Command, said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing that Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System rockets fired by American F-16s or F-15s were responsible for about 40% of Houthi drone kills during Operation Rough Rider, the military's seven-week bombing campaign against the rebels.
Kurilla was responding to questions about the implications of using expensive aircraft and munitions to fight non-state actors like the Houthis and whether the proliferation of hostile drones had led to more interest in cheaper defenses.
"We absolutely need to be putting more work into directed energy — high-powered microwave," Kurilla said. He described the heavy use of the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System as one of the "innovations" to emerge from Operation Rough Rider.
"That's a $25,000 munition going against a roughly $50,000 or $100,000 drone — that is, an Iranian-provided drone to the Houthis," he added.
The AGR-Falco Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System, or APKWS, is an unguided Hydra 70 2.75-inch rocket fitted with laser guidance kits that turn it into a precision weapon. Made by British aerospace company BAE Systems, the slim munition can fly with a 10-pound warhead at speeds of 1,000 meters per second.
One APKWS rocket is a fraction of the cost of an air-to-air missile that could otherwise be used to take down a drone. US officials have said an AIM-9, for instance, costs around $500,000; the newer AIM-120 is around $1 million.
Military leaders like Kurilla have stressed the importance of bringing the cost of air defense to parity with the price tag of the threat, though this is not always possible. US warships operating in and around the Red Sea have been forced to fire expensive surface-to-air missiles to intercept incoming Houthi missiles and drones.
SM-2 interceptors, which are on the lower end of the Navy's missile defense capabilities, can still cost upward of $2 million. Others are much more expensive, and the Red Sea fight has seen a high tempo of operations, raising concerns about future stockpiles.
Kurilla said during written testimony that US air and naval forces in the Middle East have destroyed "hundreds" of drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles fired by the Houthis into international shipping lanes and at Israel since October 2023.
The Trump administration reached a cease-fire with the Houthis in early May, ending Operation Rough Rider. During the campaign, the US military bombed over 1,000 targets in Yemen. However, the rebels continue to fire missiles at Israel, which has retaliated with several rounds of airstrikes.
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Los Angeles Times
3 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
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Ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the president, and Trump can nominate anyone he likes, though many ultimately require Senate confirmation. Typically, top ambassadorships are rewards for large donors. 'It is a tremendous honor to represent the United States as an ambassador — which is why these positions are highly coveted and reserved for the president's most loyal supporters,' said White House spokesperson Anna Kelly. 'Mike Waltz, Billy Long and Tammy Bruce are great patriots who believe strongly in the America First agenda, and the President trusts them fully to advance his foreign policy goals.' Waltz's days appeared numbered after The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg revealed in March that Waltz had added him to a private text chain on an encrypted messaging app that was used to discuss planning for a military operation against Houthi militants in Yemen. Trump initially expressed support for Waltz, downplaying the incident as 'a glitch.' Roughly five weeks later, the president announced Waltz would be leaving — but not for good. He portrayed the job change as a cause for celebration. 'From his time in uniform on the battlefield, in Congress and, as my National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our Nation's Interests first,' Trump posted in announcing Waltz's move on May 1. 'I know he will do the same in his new role.' Vice President JD Vance also pushed back on insinuations that Waltz had been ousted. 'The media wants to frame this as a firing. Donald Trump has fired a lot of people,' Vance said in an interview with Bret Baier of Fox News Channel. 'He doesn't give them Senate-confirmed appointments afterwards.' Bolton, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush before becoming Trump's national security adviser in 2018, called it 'a promotion to go in the other direction' — but not the way Waltz went. 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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to say Tuesday why Long was removed as IRS chief and being deployed to Iceland. 'The president loves Billy Long, and he thinks he can serve the administration well in this position,' she said. The soft landings aren't always heralded by Trump. Former television commentator Morgan Ortagus, who was a State Department spokesperson during Trump's first term, is now a special adviser to the United Nations after serving as deputy envoy to the Middle East under Witkoff. Trump foresaw that Ortagus might not be a good fit. He posted in January, while announcing her as Witkoff's deputy, that 'Morgan fought me for three years, but hopefully has learned her lesson.' 'These things usually don't work out, but she has strong Republican support, and I'm not doing this for me, I'm doing it for them,' Trump added. 'Let's see what happens.' Ortagus lasted less than six months in the role. Weissert and Price write for the Associated Press. AP writers Matthew Lee and Fatima Hussein in Washington contributed to this report.
8 hours ago
Leaving a top Trump administration post? The president may have an ambassadorship for you
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Breaking with the reality TV show that helped make Trump a household name, the Republican president is not telling his top appointees 'You're fired!' but instead offering them another way to stay in his administration. 'It's not like 'The Apprentice,'' said John Bolton, another former Trump national security adviser, who has since become a Trump critic. During his first White House tenure, Trump was new to politics, made many staffing picks based on others' recommendations and saw heavy staff turnover. Trump has stocked his second administration with proven boosters, which has meant fewer high-profile departures. Still, those leaving often are the subject of effusive praise and kept in Trump's political orbit, potentially preventing them from becoming critics who can criticize him on TV — something that didn't happen to a long list of former first-term officials. Ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the president, and Trump can nominate anyone he likes, though many ultimately require Senate confirmation. Typically, top ambassadorships are rewards for large donors. 'It is a tremendous honor to represent the United States as an ambassador — which is why these positions are highly coveted and reserved for the president's most loyal supporters," said White House spokesperson Anna Kelly. "Mike Waltz, Billy Long and Tammy Bruce are great patriots who believe strongly in the America First agenda, and the President trusts them fully to advance his foreign policy goals.' Waltz's days appeared numbered after The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg revealed in March that Waltz had added him to a private text chain on an encrypted messaging app that was used to discuss planning for a military operation against Houthi militants in Yemen. Trump initially expressed support for Waltz, downplaying the incident as 'a glitch.' Roughly five weeks later, the president announced Waltz would be leaving — but not for good. He portrayed the job change as a cause for celebration. 'From his time in uniform on the battlefield, in Congress and, as my National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our Nation's Interests first,' Trump posted in announcing Waltz's move on May 1. 'I know he will do the same in his new role.' Vice President JD Vance also pushed back on insinuations that Waltz had been ousted. 'The media wants to frame this as a firing. Donald Trump has fired a lot of people,' Vance said in an interview with Bret Baier of Fox News Channel. 'He doesn't give them Senate-confirmed appointments afterwards.' Bolton, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush before becoming Trump's national security adviser in 2018, called it "a promotion to go in the other direction' — but not the way Waltz went. 'The lesson is, sometimes you do more good for yourself looking nice,' Bolton said of Trump's reassignments. Ironically, Bruce learned of Waltz's ouster from a reporter's question while she was conducting a press briefing. A former Fox News Channel contributor, Bruce is friendly with Trump and was a forceful advocate for his foreign policy. Over the course of her roughly six months as spokesperson, she reduced the frequency of State Department briefings with reporters from four or five days a week to two. But Bruce had also begun to frequently decline to respond to queries on the effectiveness, substantiveness or consistency of the administration's approaches to the Middle East, Russia's war in Ukraine and other global hotspots. She told reporters that special envoy Steve Witkoff 'is heading to the region now — to the Gaza area' but then had to concede that she'd not been told exactly where in the Middle East he was going. 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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
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Starting in November 2023, the Houthi militia in Yemen started attacking or capturing commercial ships sailing through the Red Sea and Suez Canal, as a matter of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. According to a new report, however, the rebel group suddenly started making a very specific exception this summer. Since June, certain car-carrier ships dared to make the voyage, and none of them were messed with. What did all these ships have in common? They were only carrying cars made in China. As the New York Times reports, this almost certainly means that China cut a back-channel deal with the Houthis, either directly or through their main sponsor, Iran. The latter is an oil power; crude exports are 6% of its whole economy. Who buys all that oil? Almost entirely China. So the Asian superpower has a lot of pull here. Strangely, this new arrangement does seem to be particular: they're ships carrying Chinese cars. A handful of non-Chinese ships, but also carrying such cars, have made it through. Conversely, all Chinese cargo ships that aren't carrying cars are still avoiding the route. Read more: These Are The Worst Tire Recalls In Recent History China's Push Into The European Automotive Market China's presence in the European automotive market has been growing by leaps and bounds. In April, Chinese cars made up nearly 5% of the entire thing, double what it was only a year earlier. Some estimates have that going all the way up to 10% by 2034, per S&P Global. In response, the European Union has slapped tariffs onto Chinese cars that receive subsidies from the Chinese government, going as high as 35%. Since cheap prices are one of the core draws of these vehicles, it makes sense that companies would be pretty desperate to find ways to compensate for the tariffs. They might have found one. Avoiding the Red Sea adds 14 to 18 days to the voyage, which means a bunch of extra costs for fuel, crew, and maintenance. That works out to a few hundred dollars per car; since some of China's massive new ships can carry 5,000 cars each, the financial hit is in the millions. If those ships can literally take a shortcut, that's a huge savings for carmakers that they can either pocket or pass on to consumers. Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox... Read the original article on Jalopnik.
