The Army’s Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) program is on track to deliver 30 weapons in fiscal year 2025, with an extended range test tentatively scheduled for the first quarter of FY ‘22.
Monica Guthrie, a spokeswoman for the Long Range Precision Fires Cross Functional Team, told Defense Daily
the Army is confident in Lockheed Martin’s [LMT] missile offering, with the company currently serving as the sole competitor in the program’s prototyping phase.
The additional details on PrSM, the Army’s program to replace its legacy ATACMS missiles, followed the Army’s decision last month to end Raytheon’s [RTN] funding, effectively removing it from the competition (Defense Daily, March 25).
Raytheon exited the PrSM technology maturation and risk reduction phase without having conducted a flight test of its DeepStrike missile for the Army, with Guthrie noting the offering experienced a failure with its dual pulse rocket motor.
Lockheed Martin is slated to conduct its third flight test on April 30, with four additional flight tests planned for the next phase of the PrSM program including the extended range test in FY ‘22.
“Their design, based on two very successful flight tests thus far, gives us confidence that it will meet the operational requirements we’ve laid out,” Guthrie said.
The Army has said previously it plans to award a production contract for PrSM in 2021 and begin initial fielding in 2023.