Lockheed Martin [LMT] has produced the first Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) Alternative Warhead rocket at its Camden, Ark., facility, the company said Monday.
This warhead type is meant to engage the same target set and achieve the same area-effects requirement as the older MLRS submunition warhead but without the danger of lingering unexploded ordnance.
Lockheed Martin highlighted the GMLRS Alternative Warhead is compliant with international treaties banning submunitions weapons and will allow users of the MLRS system to have an area-effects weapon without procuring additional launch systems. Production of MLRS rockets with submunition warheads ended about six years ago, the company said.
The company received its first production contract for the warheads from the U.S. Army in June 2015. Individual GMLRS Alternative Warheads rockets are set to be packaged in an MLRS launch pod to be fires from the Lockheed Martin HIMARS or M270 launcher family.
“GMLRS Alternative Warhead rockets are all-weather, time-critical, rapidly deployable guided munitions that return precision area-effects capability to the battlefield commander,” Ken Musculus, vice president of tactical missiles at Lockheed Martin’s missiles and fire control division, said in a statement.
“This first GMLRS Alternative Warhead round coming off our Camden Operations production line represents another example of Lockheed Martin’s commitment to constantly evolve the MLRS family of munitions to meet the ever-changing requirements of our customers,” he added.
The company has produced over 25,000 GMLRS rockets at its Camden facility, Lockheed Martin said.