According to US contracts released on May 29, 2020, General Dynamics-OTS, Williston, Vermont, was awarded a $3,420,531,156 hybrid (cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price) contract for production and engineering services for Hydra-70 rocket systems.
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U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Aaron Osoy, aircraft ordnance technician, Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 169, Marine Aircraft Group 39, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, loads a Hydra 70 rocket into an LAU-68 rocket launcher, attached to the Bell AH-1Z Viper Attack Helicopter at Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendleton, California, Oct. 2, 2018. (Picture source U.S. DoD)
The Hydra 70 rocket is a 2.75-inch (70 mm) diameter fin-stabilized unguided rocket used primarily in the air-to-ground role. It can be equipped with a variety of warheads, and in more recent versions, guidance systems for point attacks. The Hydra 70 is derived from the 2.75-inch (70 mm) diameter Mk 4/Mk 40 Folding-Fin Aerial Rocket developed by the United States Navy for use as a free-flight aerial rocket in the late 1940s.
General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems is the system integrator of the 2.75-inch (70mm) Hydra-70 family of rockets. These rockets include unitary and cargo warheads for use against point and area targets, providing the user a lethal and lightweight weapon system with multi-mission capability.
The rocket system contains three components: the MK66 MOD 4 rocket motor, one of the nine warheads, and the associated point-detonating, omnidirectional, remote-set fuze(s). When these components are combined, they provide a tailor-made solution to the warfighter’s situational requirements.
Warheads are available in training, unitary, or cargo configurations. Fitted to the MK66 MOD 4 motor, these warheads provide low-cost munitions capable of area suppression and defeating threats at extended ranges, as well as providing battlefield obscuration, illumination and marking.
Hydra-70 provides the Army with affordable firepower matched to the mission for effective engagements and area suppression of a long list of lower-value targets on the battlefield.
General Dynamics has produced more than five million Hydra-70 rockets since 1996 in support of the Army’s Joint Attack Munition Systems Project Office. Hydra-70 fires from the existing seven and 19-tube launchers and can be mounted on most rotary and fixed-wing aircraft, including Apache, Cobra, and F-16.
