Boeing AGM-130A

     Notes:  AGM-130A is a product-improved GBU-15 (2000-pound) smart bomb.  It consists of the GBU-15 bomb with strap-on rocket motor and updated electronics to allow it to be guided by TV, IR, GPS, or manual guiding. 

BAe APKWS II

     In 2002, it was realized that technology had increased to the point that advanced laser self-guiding missiles could be packaged into a size that could fit into the Hydra-70 unguided rocket.  By 2005, General Dynamics, one of the contractors charged with developing the idea, had dropped out of the program due to consistently poor results with its design.  BAe, on the other hand, was having great success with its Hydra-70 modification and in 2006 was made the prime contractor for the program.  Successful tests were made in 2007, and in 2008, with the US Army no longer interested in the program, the APKWS II program was transferred to the US Navy and Marines.  In 2012, first combat tests were made in Afghanistan with excellent results by US Marine and British helicopters, and the same year field tests were made from fixed-wing aircraft, with successful combat use from A-10 Warthogs in Afghanistan in 2013.  In addition in 2013, tests were made from the MQ-8 Fire Scout UAV, Bell 407GT, UH-1Y, OV-10, OH-58, V-22, AH-6, A-29, F/A-18 Hornet, AH-1Z, and CN-235s, and from small patrol boats, both US Navy and British Navy.  Later came integration with the MH-60S, AH-64 Apache (with the US Army now with the program), Australian Tiger gunships, MH-60Rs, and US Marine Harriers.  In 2016, they were first used by USAF F-16 aircraft, with them being deployed in 2017 from F-16 and A-10s against ISIS targets.  They continue to be used, with BAe having produced some 7500 APKWS II.  The APKWS II package has also been successfully tested built into the Dutch FZ unguided rocket.  This also proves that the APKWS II technology can be adapted for use on other unguided rockets.  Current users include the US, Britain, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, and the Mexican Navy.

     The APKWS II essentially fits the Hydra-70 unguided rocket with a laser seeker in its nose and a small laser designator on the each of the front fin roots.  The APKWS II has 90% parts commonality with the Hydra-70. It is primarily fired in self-guiding mode, but can also use more robust laser designators on the ground or aircraft-mounted designators to achieve greater accuracy (reduces difficulty one level).  They may be fired from single, double, quintuple, or octuple wing launchers, though they have recently been successfully tested fired from a modified seven-round LAU-68 rocket pod, including with mixes of APKWS II missiles and Hydra-70 rockets.  The pod, however, is slightly modified, primarily in electrical connections and in lengthening the pod. The APKWS II is guided using a semi-active laser seeker.  The seeker can lock on to targets as far away as 14 kilometers, though actual range is limited by the Hydra-70 motor’s range. (A more powerful motor is part of the Block I improvements, with Nammo designing the motor.)  The seeker has a view angle of 40 degrees. The smaller warhead is quite useful for attacking limited-engagement targets where an ATGM or ASM like a Hellfire or Maverick would be overkill.  Speed and acceleration are similar to the Hydra-70, and an APKWS II reaches its maximum range in less than five seconds.  The firing envelope is, unfortunately, quite narrow, something Block I also addressed.

     Recently coming to service is the APKWS II Block I.  This has improvements in the motor, designator, and seeker to dramatically increase its range while increasing the length of the missile by less than 25 centimeters and weight by some.  Nammo of Norway designed the motor, while BAe did the seeker and designator.  Some reliability and ruggedness improvements were also done to the missile and launchers in general.  While the APKWS II has been in full-rate production since 2013, the Block I is still in LRIP as of July 2018.

Martin Marietta AGM-12 Bullpup

     Notes:  The AGM-12 Bullpup was the first mass-produced air-to-surface guided missile.  It was developed in response to disappointing experiences with bombing bridges in the Korean War; small bridges in particular can be extremely difficult to accurately strike from the air without resorting to mass saturation bombing.  The original example was quickly upgraded further to produce the AGM-12B Bullpup-A.  The Bullpup-A carried a 250-pound warhead, but the guidance method was quite cumbersome, requiring radio control using a joystick in the cockpit of the firing aircraft.  The AGM-12C Bullpup-B is a much larger version of the same weapon, carrying a 1000-pound semi-piercing warhead.  AGM-12D Bullpup-C is slightly larger in the center; this allowed the choice of either a nuclear or conventional warhead.  The final model was the AGM-12E Bullpup-D, which carried a high-explosive warhead with a fragmentation jacket for use against troop concentrations.  By 1976, the Bullpup was out of service in the US, but several foreign countries still use it as a training weapon, and some Third World nations use the Bullpup-A and B as second-line weapons.

     Twilight 2000 Notes: The US and Britain used about 15 Bullpup-Cs with nuclear warheads as tactical nuclear weapons.  In one controversial incident, a convoy of Russian cargo ships carrying actual humanitarian aid to Iran was hit by one of those Bullpups. 

     Merc 2000 Notes: The Bullpup was one of those surplus weapons that found a market in the Third World despite its age. 

Boeing AGM-86 CALCM

     Notes:  The CALCM (Conventional Air Launched Cruise Missile) is an adaptation of the standard ALCM to carry conventional warheads.  This was done because while the cruise missile is an excellent weapon, a cruise missile armed with a nuclear warhead is close to worthless these days in a warfighting sense.  Most CALCMs in the past have been made by modifying ALCMs; after the 1991 Gulf War and the NATO participation in Bosnia and Kosovo, supplies began to run critically low.  Therefore, new build CALCMs were authorized.   There are 5 variants of the CALCM: The AGM-86C Block 0, which is the early version with a 1500-pound explosive warhead; the AGM-86C Block I, which has a warhead increased to 3000 pounds; the AGM-86C Block 1A, which has increased accuracy as well as a 3000-pound warhead; the AGM-86D Block II, which uses a hardened nose section and a penetrating warhead; and the AGM-86E Block II, which has the penetrating warhead and increased range.

     Twilight 2000 Notes: As in the Gulf War, Middle Eastern targets were deluged with cruise missiles in the opening stages of the war, as were targets in Eastern Europe, Russia, and North Korea.  Enemy shipping was also hit by CALCMs on some occasions.  However, as the Twilight War progressed, a lot of CALCMs were converted back into ALCMs with nuclear warheads. 

     Merc 2000 Notes: Cruise missile use became more and more sparing as time went on, due to their cost.

Texas Instruments AGM-88 HARM

     Notes:  HARM (High-speed AntiRadiation Missile) is the standard ARM of the US and most of its allies.  It is an advanced missile with high countermeasure resistance (one level harder than normal to decoy) and the ability to home in on the last known location of the target if the target shuts its radar off. 

Raytheon AGM-65 Maverick

     Notes:  This missile is carried only by fixed-wing aircraft.  It is a large, TV-guided or IR-guided weapon, with a shaped charge warhead, and a fire-and-forget guidance system.  Mavericks are carried on a triple underwing launcher, usually two launchers per aircraft. 

Rafael AGM-142 Popeye

     Notes:  Popeye is an American continuation of an Israeli weapon program. It is also known as the AGM-142 Raptor; Popeye I is also known as Have Nap, and Popeye II is also known as Have Lite.  It was available during Desert Storm, but not used in that conflict due to the political implications of launching Israeli-designed weapons against Arab targets.  Popeye is designed to attack hardened targets or troop concentrations, and may have either a penetrating or blast/fragmentation warhead.  The missile is large, but may be carried by most NATO, Israeli, or US aircraft.  The missile is fire and forget with either a TV or infrared imaging guidance, or may be guided to the target by the pilot. 

     Twilight 2000 Notes: Popeye II does not exist.

China Lake AGM-45 Shrike

     Notes:  Shrike was the first antiradiation missile fielded by anyone since World War 2.  It was based partially on the Sparrow AAM.  Deployment began in 1963, but early use by F-105Gs and EA-6As was disappointing and there have been numerous modifications, mostly to cope with different sorts of SAMs and fire direction radars.  The Shrike was largely replaced by the HARM in most countries’ militaries by 2003, though many were kept for use as training weapons. 

Motorola AGM-122 Sidearm

     Notes:  The Sidearm is a US antiradiation missile in the body of an AIM-9C Sidewinder.  It is designed for use by light aircraft unable to carry the heavier HARM, such as the Harrier and helicopters.  It is vulnerable to countermeasures and carries a small warhead, but does provide a useful defense against lighter enemy SAMs and radar installations. 

China Lake AGM-123 Skipper

    Notes:  Skipper is a short-range PGM, made by adding a rocket motor to a Mk 83 (1000-pound) bomb and adding a smart bomb's guidance unit.  It is a quick and dirty way to provide stand off capability to a launch aircraft, to protect it from enemy air defenses. 

Boeing AGM-84E SLAM (Stand-off Land Attack Missile)

     Notes:  The AGM-84E SLAM is a land attack version of the Harpoon anti-ship missile.  Its warhead has better penetration than the Harpoon, and the missile is guided by GPS, IR, inertial guidance, or manual guidance. A later version, the SLAM-ER, has an upgraded engine for better range and a titanium nosecone for better penetration. It is primarily used for very hardened targets such as bunkers. 

     Twilight 2000 Notes: There were only very limited quantities of SLAM-ER available for the Twilight War.

General Dynamics AGM-78 Standard

     Notes:  In 1966, the military was frustrated with the rather poor success it was getting from the Shrike ARM.  At the same time, the North Vietnamese were beginning to harden and armor their SAM and AAA sites.  Development of an ARM with longer range, more flexibility and accuracy, and a larger warhead began; this became the Standard.  The first missiles had the seeker of the Shrike and thus accuracy wasn’t any better, but at least the range and warhead were.  This was replaced by the AGM-78B, with a much improved seeker.  AGM-78D and D-2 were to be even more improved, but about that time (1978) HARM came into production and was a much better weapon than either Shrike or Standard.  An interesting point about the AGM-78B version is that in addition to the standard warhead, the explosion gives off a puff or red or white smoke to aid in directing further strikes to the same target.

     Twilight 2000 Notes: Standard is still in limited use by the US.

     Merc 2000 Notes: The Egyptians are the only known user of the Standard by 2000.

General Dynamics BGM-109 Tomahawk

     Notes:  This is one of the US standard cruise missiles.  The missile is launched from a very long range, unfolds wings, starts a turbojet engine, and flies in to the target, using terrain-matching AI guidance (the missile takes constant pictures of the terrain below through a camera in the body, and matches them to a map contained in its guidance computer, making course corrections as necessary).  It can also be guided or make adjustments by GPS.  The Tomahawk was used in large numbers beginning in the late 1980s for bombardment of heavily-defended targets or to spare the possibly of pilot loss in politically controversial actions.  This missile was normally ship or submarine-launched, but could be launched from land bases, or airdropped from certain aircraft such as the F/A-18 or A-6.  Tomahawks that dispense ICM-DP submunitions have 100 submunitions; SADARM-equipped tomahawks have 50 submunitions.  SADARM-warhead Tomahawks' submunitions attack as if using a TAC Missile skill level of 13.

     Twilight 2000 Notes: Though used often in the early portions of the Twilight War, supplies were depleted rather rapidly, and the Tomahawk is rather rare by 2000. 

     Merc 2000 Notes: There was always a fight between the budget committees and the military to fund cruise missiles; however, it was usually agreed that it was cheaper and less sensitive to use cruise missiles than manned aircraft.

Raytheon AGM-176 Griffin

     Notes The Griffin is a small AGM, a mere 110 centimeters long and 140 millimeters in diameter.  It’s small size is intended to minimize casualties and destruction, as the Griffin is designed to be used in urban environments, with a mere 5.9-kilogram warhead. The Griffin is currently primarily used on AC-130W and J gunships , the USMC’s MC-130W Dragon Spear, and from UAV, particularly smaller ones. The SOW is also using them from their Little Bird choppers. It is fired from a 140 millimeter tube, and can also be fired as a surface-to-surface or SAM, stacking up 4x5 tubes or more.  The Navy’s Littoral Combat Ships are being currently tested with the Griffin,  The Navy’s primary interest is a simple, cheap, and effective means of zapping things like Iranian motorboats. On a Predator, three Griffins can take the place of one Hellfire on a Predator or Reaper’s Hellfire rack.  Other launch platforms include the A-29 Super Tucano, KV-130J Harvest Hawk, Cyclone-class Patrol Ship, the Fire Scout, the F-35B, and the V-22 Osprey.

     The Griffin is primarily an ASM, but it can be dropped as a freefall bomb for very short range engagements,  The Griffin has large winglets up front and smaller square fins at the rear.  The Griffin firing requires an initial paint of the target by the firer’s radar, then GPS/INS takes over, with midcourse corrections  (if necessary) by UHF radio.  Griffins may be fired en masse by larger aircraft, but are primarily designed for smaller aircraft and UAVs, excep6t in certain special installations.

     The Block II version has an additional laser seeker which allows it to tack mobile targets; rumors state that Griffins have hit targets moving as 125 kph, and further rumors have stated that the Block II is being developed into a Block III for antihelicopter use.(This projected version is not listed below due to lack of information.) The Block II version is listed here, but the ground launch range is approximate, as it has been used so far only with aircraft.