Lockheed Martin [LMT] has delivered the first Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) unit to the Army from the company’s new production facility in Camden, Ark.
Lockheed is under contract to deliver 124 new ATACMS missiles to the Army and an unnamed international customer. The ATACMS program is in full-rate production at Lockheed’s Precision Fires Production Center of Excellence in Camden.
The company also is nearing completion of a development contract with the Army that enhances existing ATACMS missiles with upgrades to the missile electronics, and complete the qualification of a height-of-burst proximity sensor, which provides increased area effects on targets.
As one part of its multi-domain battle concept of operations, the Army is looking to repurpose some of its ATACM systems as land-based anti-ship capabilities. That mission would complement, not supplant, the weapon’s role as guided mobile artillery.
“ATACMS has demonstrated unparalleled system performance and reliability for our customers,” said Scott Greene, vice president of Precision Fires at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, in a prepared statement. “These latest ATACMS rounds will support Army readiness, and provide a critical new precision engagement capability to our international customers.”
ATACMS is the Army’s only tactical long-range, deep precision-strike surface-to-surface weapon system. ATACMS missiles can be fired from any version of the family of Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) launchers.
Lockheed Martin has produced more than 3,800 ATACMS missiles over more than 20 years. More than 600 of the munitions have been fired in combat, and the system has demonstrated high rates of accuracy and reliability in theater. Each ATACMS missile is packaged in a Guided Missile Launch Assembly pod.
The modernized missile completed its third and fourth successful flight tests at the White Sands Missile Range, NM, in February.
The modernized TACMS tests are part of the U.S. Army’s TACMS Service Life Extension Program wherein the modernized missile will include new state-of-the-art guidance electronics and a capability to defeat area targets without leaving behind unexploded ordinance, Lockheed Martin said.
The modernization process disassembles and demilitarizes the TACMS Block 1 and 1A submunition warheads, replaces them with new unitary warheads, and brings them into compliance with Defense Department policy on cluster munitions and unintended harm to civilians. The process also resets the missile’s designated 10-year shelf life.