Lockheed Martin [LMT] yesterday said it received contracts totaling $603 million from the Army Aviation & Missile Command for the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS).
Work on the contract will be done at the company’s facilities in Camden, Ark., and Grand Prairie, Texas, with the last contract scheduled for completion in the last part of 2011.
“In theater, the GMLRS Unitary rocket has earned the nickname ‘The 70-kilometer Sniper Rifle,’ and continues to live up to that reputation mission after mission,” Col. David Rice, Army program manager for Precision Fires, Rocket and Missile Systems, said in a statement. “In fact, over 1,000 have been fired in support of the Global War on Terrorism. GMLRS has changed the way fires are applied throughout the battlefield, making it the absolute ‘King of Battle,’ providing responsive, precision fires enabled by unsurpassed system reliability and maintainability.”
Col. Tony Daskevich, the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) capabilities manager for Rockets and Missile Systems, said: “HIMARS brings the frontline Soldiers and Marines an agile, responsive and accurate delivery system of extremely precise fires. HIMARS’ exceptional mobility, transportability and reliability have been keys to highly effective, accurate fire support during combat operations in support of the Global War on Terrorism.”
Rick Edwards, vice president of Tactical Missiles at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, said: “HIMARS and GMLRS, with their mobility and surgical precision, coupled with a world-class logistics footprint, have changed the way supporting fires are applied in urban and counter insurgency fights. Their continued modernization keeps them relevant to the warriors who defend us on freedom’s frontiers.”
Guided Unitary MLRS is the newest variant that leverages the Guided MLRS experience and investment to integrate a unitary warhead with a multi-mode fuze to expand the MLRS target set to include point targets within urban and complex environments. In January 2005, the U.S. Army issued an Urgent Need Statement for acceleration of Guided Unitary deliveries in support of counter fire operations.
Lockheed Martin delivered the first 72 GMLRS Unitary rockets in June 2005 satisfying the requirements of the Urgent Need Statement. The first 900-plus rockets were delivered to the United States in 2005 and 2006.
GMLRS is an all-weather, precision strike, artillery rocket system that incorporates a GPS-aided inertial guidance package integrated on a product improved rocket body. Additionally, small canards on the Guided Rocket nose add basic maneuverability to further enhance the accuracy of the system.
HIMARS can accommodate the entire family of MLRS munitions. It can move away from the area at high speed following missile launch, well before enemy forces are able to locate the launch site. Because of its C-130 transportability, HIMARS can be deployed into areas previously inaccessible to heavier launchers and provides a force multiplier to the modular brigade. It also incorporates the self-loading, autonomous features. Its fire control system, electronics and communications units are interchangeable with the existing MLRS M270A1 launcher, and the crew and training are the same. HIMARS prototypes were successfully employed in Operation Iraqi Freedom.