French Army interested in procuring Lockheed Martin DAGR guided rockets for its Tigre helicopters.

The 70mm DAGR is a precision-strike, multi-role, multi-platform munition that effectively neutralizes lightly-armored and high-value targets close to civilian assets or friendly forces. DAGR offers strike capability with the reliability of a HELLFIRE II missile while further limiting collateral damage.

Like HELLFIRE, DAGR offers lock-on-after-launch (LOAL) and lock-on-before-launch (LOBL) capability, target handoff, enhanced built-in testing on the rail, and laser coding from the cockpit. The result is a laser-guided missile that offers capabilities beyond those of a simple guided rocket.

French Army Light Aviation’s Tigre helicopters already deploy Lockheed Martin’s AGM-114K HELLFIRE II missiles. According to a French Army spokesperson contacted by Army Recognition, the missile will become fully operational early next year.

The French interest in DAGR should come as no surprise. It follows return of experience from recent French Army operations in Afghanistan, Libya and currently in Mali. Mostly confronted with inexpensive, very mobile soft targets (the well known “Toyota” type pickup trucks), sometimes in urban environment, French forces often had to use expensive guided ammunitions (such as GBU-12 Paveway II or AASM/Hammer) or had to make the decision not to engage because of the risk of collateral damages.

DAGR addresses both these issues:
Issue 1: Cost - DAGR was designed to be a low cost, affordable solution. The seeker is partially based on the proven Hellfire missile, while the guidance kit can be fitted on existing rockets. DAGR offers plug-and-play integration with existing HELLFIRE launchers and platforms. There would be no development or integration costs associated with the procurement of DAGR for French Army Tigre helicopters as is.
To the pilot, DAGR is just another HELLFIRE. When DAGR is mounted to a HELLFIRE launcher, pilots automatically gain the following capabilities, just like HELLFIRE:
• Cockpit control of laser codes
• Power-on-before-launch
• Built-in-test
• Lock-on-before-launch
• Lock-on-after-launch
• Inventory control: “one or none”.

Issue 2: Collateral damages – DAGR is a precision-strike ammunition with a small warhead (M151 warhead 3.9 kg). Its low collateral impact makes it the right solution for use in urban environment. DAGR has proven itself in over 40 successful guided flights, launched from such rotary-wing platforms as the AH-64D Apache, AH-6 Little Bird and OH-58 Kiowa Warrior. And every DAGR target strike has hit within 1.5 meters of the laser-designated aimpoint.