Arnold Defense, the St. Louis based manufacturer of 2.75-inch rocket launchers, is pleased to announce the receipt of two major orders for their unique FLETCHER Land Based, Laser Guided Rocket Launcher. The FLETCHER precision guided 2.75-inch/70mm weapon system was first unveiled in 2017 at DSEi in London. Arnold Defense declined to say which vehicles would be equipped with the launcher, although company president Doug Wallace said the Fletcher could be integrated on a variety of ground vehicles including the Polaris MRZR and DAGOR, Navistar SOTV, Nimr Ajban LRSOV, Oshkosh S-ATV, Supacat LRV400 and HMT600, and Jankel LTTV.
Arnold Defense is unable to disclose specific details regarding the new contracts in place however, one of the two orders has come from USSOCOM and the other is from an undisclosed European specialist unit. The timings, numbers, configurations and concepts of use are different for each customer, but Arnold and their integration partners will be delivering a combination of single (4-round) vehicle-mounted FLETCHER systems, as seen on display at numerous exhibitions and a new and unique twin-mounted (8-round) FLETCHER variant. Vehicle and static mounted FLETCHER systems give the user the ability to accurately engage targets from the ground at a range of over 5km.
Since the launch of the concept in 2017, FLETCHER has been showcased at a number of international exhibitions, generating exceptional levels of interest whilst Arnold Defense have continued with an ongoing development and investment program to broaden and prove the system’s already revolutionary capability. In April 2019 Arnold Defense announced the placement of the very first ‘proof of concept’ order for FLETCHER. In June of this year, BAE Systems announced the successful live firing of their APKWS® laser-guided rockets using the FLETCHER ground-based launcher. Arnold Defense are also working on some other revolutionary development projects for FLETCHER including a boat-mounted marine variant and further development of their 23-round MLHS ground-based system, first unveiled at DSEi in 2019.
With FLETCHER, Arnold Defense has made a bold departure from the traditional concept of use for 2.75-inch rocket systems; that of an area suppression weapon delivered by aviation assets. Arnold’s innovative approach FLETCHER using advanced rocket-guidance technology to utilize ground-based launch platforms, meeting the demands of modern, vehicle-mounted and dismounted asymmetric warfare. FLETCHER’s unique design allows for ease of operation, maintenance and sustainment. It employs an existing suite of guidance modules, rockets and warheads, already used in well-known programs and readily available to global forces. As a result, the FLETCHER system is ‘rocket agnostic’ allowing the user to fire their existing in-service 2.75-inch rockets of choice.
