Lockheed Martin has received a $139.6 M contract to provide 44 combat-proven High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) to the US Army. This order will increase the Army’s HIMARS launcher fleet to 375, with deliveries continuing through January 2013. Work on the contract will be performed at the company’s facilities in Camden, AR, and Grand Prairie, TX.
“HIMARS brings soldiers an agile, responsive and accurate delivery system of extremely precise fires,” said Col. David J. Rice, US Army Program Manager for Precision Fires, Rocket and Missile Systems. “HIMARS continues to impress everybody with its performance and versatility; the system is reliable, robust and exceptionally effective in theater.”
The system can accommodate a six-pack of Guided MLRS rockets or one Army Tactical Missile System missile. HIMARS, a highly mobile artillery rocket system based on the Army’s FMTV five-ton truck, is designed to launch the entire MLRS Family of Munitions.
HIMARS is designed to enable troops to engage and defeat artillery, air defense concentrations, trucks, light armor and personnel carriers, as well as support troop and supply concentrations. HIMARS can move away from the area at high speed following missile launch, well before enemy forces are able to locate the launch site. The US Army and Marines operate HIMARS, as do several international allies. 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 that have made MLRS the premier rocket artillery system in the world. The HIMARS fire control system, electronics and communications units are interchangeable with the existing MLRS M270A1 launcher.