DSEI 2025: BAE Systems assessing C-UAS weapons for Typhoon

A file photo of a Eurofighter Typhoon. BAE Systems is now looking at integrating low-cost weapons onto the aircraft for the C-UAS role. (BAE Systems)

BAE Systems is assessing a range of weapon systems that could be carried by the Eurofighter Typhoon for the counter-unmanned aircraft system (C-UAS) role, the company disclosed on 11 September.

Speaking at the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) 2025 exhibition in London, Paul Smith, BAE Systems head of Typhoon Strategy Delivery, said the company is studying a number of low-cost weapon solutions for the role, including its own AGR-20A Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) 70 mm guided rocket.

“APKWS is a clear driver for that sort of capability – a low-cost kinetic effector, and it is just one of a range of weapons that we are assessing [and that] we're doing feasibility studies on within the Typhoon product strategy. We are working with the customer nations to give them an answer to that question [as to how to combat cheap UASs without expending expensive air-to-air missiles],” Smith said.

Smith noted that the issue of integrating such weapons on the Typhoon is as much programmatic as it is technical, saying, “What level of risk and integration maturity do customers want?”, adding, “Clearly, we will have to prioritise that [C-UAS integration work] against other activities that the nations want us to look at.”

News of BAE Systems' work on C-UAS capabilities for the Typhoon came weeks after Eurofighter CEO Jorge Tamarit Degenhardt told Janes and other reporters at the Paris Air Show in June that he was aware of the growing C-UAS mission and that he “needs to now have that conversation” with his primary customers of Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom.