The U.S. Army is introducing a new 30mm proximity-explosion artillery shell to its main attack helicopter, the AH-64 "Apache", expanding its traditional role as a ground-attack tank killer into an aerial platform specialized in hunting small drones. This new ammunition for the M230 chain gun uses an extremely small proximity fuse, which can automatically detonate when approaching the drone target, releasing a cloud of high-speed steel and tungsten alloy fragments to deliver a fatal blow to the target.
Since its entry into service in 1986, the Boeing AH-64 Apache has been regarded as a typical ground attack and anti-tank platform due to its ability to penetrate defenses at low altitude, use terrain to hide, hover, lurk, and suddenly jump to attack. However, it has never been known as an air-to-air combat platform, let alone a full-time anti-drone, which in the past was almost considered to be an extreme use of "shooting pigeons with a howitzer". With the rapid evolution of drone combat styles, the U.S. Army, in its overall concept of counter-small unmanned aerial vehicle system (C-sUAS), began to try to let Apache take on the task of hunting low-cost small unmanned aerial vehicles.
To achieve this goal, the Army is turning to its World War II technological heritage from nearly 80 years ago. At that time, the Allies urgently needed to effectively shoot down enemy bombers, and early anti-aircraft guns needed to hit directly or rely on timed fuses to explode at a predetermined height, and the effect was not ideal. In 1939, the British Telecommunications Research Institute proposed the concept of turning the anti-aircraft shell itself into a miniature radar transmitter-receiver device: the shell emits radio waves. Once it approaches the aircraft body, the echo changes significantly, and the fuze is triggered to detonate, thereby achieving a killing method of "no need to hit, just passing by". This is the origin of the proximity fuze.
Since it was difficult for Britain to complete the engineering and mass production of this technology in a short period of time during the war, relevant secrets were subsequently shared with the United States in exchange for U.S. industrial production capacity support. Under highly confidential conditions, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in the United States reduced the impending fuse to fit into a 5-inch shell, strengthened its structure to withstand up to 20,000 gravitational acceleration and 25,000 rpm centrifugal force, and designed a battery that only starts after launch to avoid premature leakage or failure. The proximity fuze eventually became one of the important key technologies in World War II alongside radar, atomic bombs, Leach searchlights and programmable computers, and is considered to have played a decisive role in the Allied victory.
Today, this classic principle has been reborn in the US military’s latest XM1225 “Aviation Proximity Explosion” (APEX) chain gun shells to deal with the increasingly severe drone threat. The bomb was originally developed for ground platforms, but a version suitable for aviation has been developed. It is equipped with an ultra-miniature proximity fuze. It also senses the target distance through radio signals, detonates when it enters the killing radius, and throws a cloud of high-speed steel and tungsten alloy fragments at air targets or soft targets on the ground.
According to the US military, the XM1225 bomb has undergone complete safety testing and is fully compatible with the Apache main gun system and its fire control software. It can also cooperate with the pilot's Helmet Display and Sighting System (HDSS) to meet precision shooting requirements. This bomb type is calibrated to target "soft-skinned targets", including Category 1 and Category 2 small drones, exposed personnel, and small surface targets. Compared with Apache's other main air-launched weapon, the AGM-114 "Hellfire" missile, the cost of a single shot is orders of magnitude lower. In addition, Apache can carry about 1,200 rounds of 30mm artillery shells at a time. When intercepting a group of small drones with multiple bursts or short bursts, the probability of hit and damage in a single shot is extremely high. This performance was verified in a live-fire firing held at the Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona in December 2025, which demonstrated the new ammunition's effective ability to kill UAV targets in actual combat scenarios.
Maj. Vincent Franchino, director and test pilot of the Attack Aircraft Division at the Army's Redstone Test Center, said that the XM1225's proximity fuze is expected to significantly improve the damage effect against soft targets. As long as these targets can be detected, identified and tracked, the Apache strike group can rely on this new capability to gain greater tactical flexibility in ground and air missions. For the U.S. Army, transforming traditional attack helicopters into platforms with high-density, low-cost anti-drone firepower is becoming one of the important attempts to check and balance the threat of large-scale and cheap drones on future battlefields.