Lockheed Martin [LMT] has received a $180.7 million deal from the Army to work on the next phase of the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) program, the company told Defense Daily
on Wednesday.
The PrSM Enhanced Technical Maturation and Risk Reduction (ETMRR) phase contract, which was awarded through the Advanced Technology International consortium, will include building four missiles, conducting three flight tests and going through subsystem qualification.
“Lockheed Martin will complete the TMRR phase this summer and, based on excellent program performance, has earned the privilege to move forward to the enhanced TMRR or ETMRR phase of the PrSM program with the U.S. Army,” a company spokesperson told Defense Daily. “We’ve validated the design and performance of our baseline tactical missile and are already working with our Army partner on Engineering Design Testing, production readiness and fielding requirements to support the future needs of the soldier.”
PrSM is the Army’s program to replace its legacy ATACMS missiles, also built by Lockheed Martin, with plans to award a production contract in 2021 and begin initial fielding in 2023.
Lockheed Martin conducted a third successful demonstration of its PrSM offering at the end of April, a short-range test at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, which Army officials said was considered the most challenging demonstration to date (Defense Daily, April 30).
The latest flight test was the first following Raytheon’s [RTN] official exit from the program in March after the Army’s decision not to provide the company additional funding noting its missile offering had experienced “technical problems” (Defense Daily, March 25).
Lockheed Martin has started production of the missile rounds that will be used for flight tests in 2021, according to a company spokesperson.
Jane’s first reported details of Lockheed Martin’s ETMRR contract for PrSM.