Deploy MRM-KE on the AH-64D Apache Longbow?

I was just thinking. The US army is coming out with the worlds best KE penetrator round, The MRM-KE. Its a cannon fired, rocket assisted guided KE penetrator intended to be fired from the Abrams and its successors. Its proven. In 2006, an M1 Abrams fired an MRM-CE (HEAT version) at a moving T-72 8600m away, hitting it. The thought came to me:

Why not take 30 of these ~20lb penetrators, and deploy them on the Apache?

It might be substantially more effective than the AGM-114 Hellfire.

Is this feasable and practical?

Mounting the penetrators isn't a problem....getting them up to speed *is* a problem, since the Apache doesn't have a 120mm cannon to accelerate them. Are you going to attach a booster rocket to each penetrator? You've just replaced the Hellfire with an unguided missile.

The round is rocket accelerated to begin with, as a tank round. The main 120mm tank gun doesnt shoot it as much as it just ignites it, and the rocket gets it up to speed. The Rockets are already attached. And yes, it is guided, Laser to be specific.

Teach me to post after a 14 hour work shift

Just to toss out some very hypothetical possibilities:

The round might need the initial boost (and guidance) from the gun barrel (rather like a bottle rocket needs something to give it initial stability. Admittedly, you could get by with letting the round free-fall off a launch rail *if* the helicopter was far enough off the ground...but most helicopters that go tank hunting these days tend to be low enough to double as lawn mowers, so that might not be an option.

It's also very possible that such a thing actually is being considered as a future development, once the system has proved itsef in its primary mode. It wouldn't be the first time that a system has evolved well past its initial parameters (best example I can think of right now is the Standard SAM that now doubles fairly effectively as an anti-shipping round).

According to research the round in question, the MRM-KE/CE is exactly that, a standard tank round.

On being fired from any tank gun of 105 calibre and above, the round first aquires it's position by GPS, travells towards it's target and, whilst at the height of the trajectory, an on board booster rocket motor ignites, giving the KE or CE round, it's penetrative capability.

See www.defense-update.com... for more details.

I thought it was just like an ATGM penetrator...so its like a rocket steered, gps guided cannon round?

Originally posted by BlackWidow23
I thought it was just like an ATGM penetrator...so its like a rocket steered, gps guided cannon round?

The only weapon I can liken this round too, would be the old French anti-runway bomb, the Durandall.

It was dropped at medium height and, when it reached about 20 feet off the ground, a rocket motor fired the bomb into the runway surface, down to a depth of 10-15 feet before it detonated.

So this tank round is fired normally and at the height of trejectory, the rocket motor ignites, driving the round through the enemy tank's armour.

I just wounder it this is a smaller version of the British Merlin anti-tank mortar round?