Affordable Weapon System

The Affordable Weapon System is a United States Navy program to design and build a low-cost, off-the-shelf cruise missile that can be launched from a self-contained unit fitted inside a standard shipping container. It grew out of budget pressures in the 1970s, when rising operations and maintenance costs squeezed the money available for new weapons, and was meant to let the United States field precision-guided munitions in the volume a large-scale conflict would demand without the cost of a fully custom-built missile. Contractors including Titan Corporation, BAE Systems, and later MBDA Incorporated worked on the program, with BAE Systems pursuing an affordable approach by converting existing Hydra rockets into precision-guided munitions, and significant contracts were awarded between 2002 and 2008.