Type,
I think the Apache can use CRV-7s, can't it? Oh, and the Harrier did.
The laser guided 'Hydra 70' rocket came out of a US Army programme called 'APKWS' (Advanced Precision Kill Weapons System) - got started in 02, relaunched as APKWS II in 2005, and then transferred over to the US Navy in 08, as the USMC saw the potential. A BAE/NG/GD team won the contract, but LM have continued to market their own solution.
The MoD was briefed on APKWS as early as 98, but there was zero interest from anyone - at that time, the focus was on Storm Shadow and Brimstone, aiming at hardened targets or tanks. The potential of marrying an APKWS guidance system with the very powerful and accurate CRV7 rocket was never, as far as I know, looked at seriously. At the time, CRV7s were only a UOR for the RAF, but some efforts were being made to bring them into core. However, once Jags and Harriers were canned, only Apache was left.
I understand that CRV7s have been extensively used in Afghanistan by UK Apaches, but there does not seem to have been much coverage of that.
The situation in Iraq and Syria is seems to be, in my opinion, one which a guided CRV7 could be very useful. It comfortably outranges ground based guns, has low collateral damage (with most warheads - the flechette load less so) and comes in at well below a Brimstone. It's also highly effective against the sorts of targets that seem to be there, mainly due to the range of warheads available.
Most usefully for those on the ground we are trying to help, it would give one aircraft many more deliverable loads than we can deliver at present. My 'take' on what is happening out there is that the current levels of air support are not concentrated enough, heavy enough or prolonged enough to stop a determined, well trained and widely dispersed ground force advancing over wide areas into urban areas, where they are much harder to find and hit. A jet that can attack two targets and then has to go home seems, in my view, to be less useful than one that could attack eight or ten.
Best Regards as ever to those doing their best in a god awful place
Engines