(MENAFN- Mid-East Info) When EDGE's subsidiary ADASI showcased its RASH‐2M at the Partner 2025 defence exhibition in Belgrade at the end of September 2025, the demonstration underscored a clear trend in modern warfare: the persistent drive to retrofit existing munitions with low‐cost, high‐precision guidance rather than replacing entire arsenals. The RASH-2M is a glide-kit and guidance package that converts standard 120 mm mortar rounds into winged, precision-guided munitions. By combining modest hardware with modern navigation systems, EDGE Group, a private military company, extended the tactical reach and accuracy of one of the most ubiquitous battlefield weapons - the mortar.

What the RASH‐2M actually is

At its core the RASH‐2M is a modular retrofit: a guidance and glide kit that attaches to a conventional 120 mm mortar round. After release from a carrier (manned or unmanned aerial platform) the wings deploy, providing lift and allowing the modified round to glide toward a coordinates‐based target. The system uses a combined GPS/INS guidance suite and can be supplemented with laser designation options depending on mission needs. According to manufacturer specifications, a single guided element weighs roughly 14.5 kg, has a wingspan of about 1 metre, and can be released from altitudes up to 25,000 ft - characteristics that make it compatible with a range of rotary and fixed‐wing platforms.

Key performance features

Several concrete features explain why a kit like RASH‐2M is attractive to modern forces:

• Extended standoff range: By virtue of its glide capability, a 120 mm mortar round converted with a RASH‐2M kit can engage targets far beyond the ballistic range of an unguided mortar, with reported glide ranges of up to about 18 km when released from higher altitudes. This gives units a larger engagement envelope and the ability to strike from safer stand‐off distances.

• Lightweight, modular design: The modest mass of the kit keeps the combined munition within practical handling and platform payload limits, enabling integration on small UAVs as well as larger aircraft.

• Guidance resilience: GPS/INS provides reasonably accurate guidance in most environments; optional laser designation offers a path to engage moving or time‐sensitive targets when GPS alone is insufficient.

• Low incremental cost: Converting stockpiled mortar rounds is typically cheaper than buying new precision munitions, enabling rapid scale‐up of precision fires with limited procurement budgets. EDGE has previously highlighted the RASH family as a cost‐effective way to add precision to legacy ammunition.
  

How RASH‐2M changes tactical options

Mortars historically filled a niche: indirect fires with relative simplicity and low cost, at the trade‐off of accuracy. The RASH‐2M blurs that line. Units that previously relied on unguided mortar barrages could adopt a mixed approach - retaining area suppression with conventional rounds while using RASH‐equipped shells for high‐value, precision tasks such as neutralizing command nodes, interdiction of high‐value vehicles, or defeating hardened points with minimal collateral effects.

Because the glide kit can be released from aerial platforms, it also enables new concepts of operation. Tactical UAS (unmanned aerial systems) can carry multiple guided rounds to deliver pinpoint effects without risking a forward mortar team. This was a theme at Partner 2025, where EDGE displayed integrated solutions combining unmanned systems with munitions like RASH‐2M to provide rapid, precise strike options.

Industrial and procurement context

ADASI and other EDGE entities have actively promoted the RASH family to militaries seeking modernisation without wholesale re‐armament. In late 2023 EDGE announced major contracts for precision guided munitions and related systems, underlining both government appetite and industrial capability for such upgrades. Reports at the time noted significant contracts awarded to supply RASH‐2M and related kits - reflecting that governments are willing to pay to convert existing inventories into precision assets rather than buying only entirely new weapons. This procurement approach reduces unit cost per effect while leveraging existing logistic chains for mortar ammunition.

Platform integration and operational use cases

The RASH‐2M is explicitly designed for flexible carriage. Its compact package allows integration onto manned aircraft, helicopters, and increasingly popular unmanned platforms. Several realistic use cases emerge:

• Border and littoral security: Low‐intensity engagements along borders or coastlines, where discrimination and reduced collateral damage are paramount, are well suited to precision glide kits.

• Counter‐insurgency and urban operations: Precision reduces civilian risk and infrastructure damage, an important consideration in politically sensitive environments.

• Expeditionary forces: Small expeditionary units that cannot deploy heavy artillery can use airborne platforms to deliver guided mortars to support deployed troops.

• Swarm and distributed effects: Multiple small UAVs each carrying one or more guided mortar kits could present a distributed, hard‐to‐counter strike package for specific battlefield tasks. Evidence of pairing RASH‐2M with new UAV platforms surfaced at Partner 2025 and in subsequent reporting from defence shows.
  

Operational challenges and limitations

No technology is a silver bullet, and RASH‐2M brings trade‐offs and complications that commanders and logisticians must consider:

• Carrier compatibility and doctrine: While the kit is compact, not every UAV or aircraft can easily carry and release mortar‐derived gliders. Integration, release mechanisms, and safe employment procedures require time and testing.

• Logistics and maintenance: Additional guidance kits mean new spares, diagnostic tools, and training pipelines; militaries must factor that into lifecycle costs. <
• Electronic warfare and GPS denial: In contested environments GPS guidance can be degraded. Although INS and optional laser guidance mitigate some risk, robust operational concepts must include GPS‐denied scenarios.

• Legal and ethical considerations: Increasing the precision and stand‐off capability of indirect fires reduces collateral damage when used correctly, but the proliferation of such capabilities raises questions about escalation, target discrimination, and rules of engagement that require careful doctrine and legal oversight. Aeronaut's coverage and expert commentary at Partner 2025 flagged the need for tactical, legal, and ethical assessment when deploying such kits.
  

Strategic implications

Widespread adoption of glide kits like RASH‐2M could accelerate a broader shift: smaller munitions and low‐cost retrofits delivering effects once reserved for much larger-and more expensive-stand‐alone precision weapons. For states with existing mortar inventories, this becomes an attractive path to improved precision without dramatically increasing budgets or drawing the attention and controversy of large, new procurements. For defense exporters and vendors, the RASH family represents a lucrative market: retrofit kits can be sold alongside training, integration services, and platform modifications.

At the operational level, the ability to launch precision‐guided mortar rounds from a range of aerial platforms enables more fluid doctrines, where sensor‐shooter loops close faster and operators can exert precise effects from greater standoff. In asymmetric conflicts, this can be decisive; in high‐intensity peer conflicts, it may add one more dimension to layered fires.

Where this fits in the evolution of munitions

The RASH‐2M is part of an industry trend toward modularity: instead of replacing legacy systems entirely, militaries have increasingly sought bolt‐on solutions that extend life and capability. From guidance kits for artillery shells to kits that convert rockets into glide munitions, retrofitting has the advantage of rapid fielding and cost efficiency. The RASH family follows this logic: it leverages decades of investment in mortar logistics and handling while adding modern navigation and aerodynamic enhancements.

Final thoughts

When ADASI put RASH‐2M on display at Partner 2025 in Belgrade in late September 2025, it was more than a product announcement - it was a statement about how modern armed forces are reconciling fiscal realities with operational demands for precision. The kit's combination of low incremental cost, reasonable performance, and platform flexibility made it an attractive option for many militaries looking to upgrade capabilities quickly. But as with any weapon system, successful employment requires sound doctrine, training, and legal oversight to ensure precision becomes a tool for reducing harm rather than a driver of escalation.

For defence planners and capability developers, RASH‐2M and similar retrofit kits are an important case study: they show that innovation in warfare can come from smarter use of existing assets as much as from entirely new technologies. Careful integration and considered doctrine will determine whether the RASH family becomes a tactical multiplier or a logistical headache. Either way, the trend toward modular precision is likely to persist - and RASH‐2M is a clear example of that direction.

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