The Falcon’s New Fangs: F-16s Load Up with 42 APKWS II Rockets for Drone Defense

Could Ukraine be getting this upgrade?

DoD. Markup by the author.

Quick update today, friends. The humble rocket pod is getting a glow-up.

The US Air Force’s F-16 fleet, no stranger to late-career upgrades, is now strapping on more rocket pods than a 1980s action movie. Thanks to reporting by The War Zone, recent photos out of Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, show the venerable Fighting Falcon packing a grand total of six LAU-131 A/A rocket pods, good for 42 shots of laser-guided, drone-popping goodness.

If that sounds familiar, it should: the F-15E Strike Eagle just started rocking the same setup for air-to-air counter-UAS missions in the Middle East.

But this isn’t just an American story. The battlefield lessons behind this “rocket pod renaissance” have obvious implications for Ukraine and every other nation fending off swarms of cheap kamikaze drones.

So, how did we get here, why does it matter, and could Ukrainian pilots soon be unleashing their own salvos of APKWS II rockets from Western-supplied F-16s?

Let’s take a look.