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Dallas TX: Lockheed Martin has received a $166 million contract to provide 44 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) to the U.S. Army and 16 to the U.S. Marine Corps. Work on the contract will be performed at the company's facilities in Camden, AR, and Grand Prairie, TX, and is scheduled for completion in February 2009.
“The HIMARS system, which is on track for cost and schedule, brings unprecedented capabilities to the modular force…mobility and precision that Soldiers didn't have in the past,” said Colonel Earnest Harris, project manager for Precision Fires Rocket and Missile Systems.
“HIMARS' mobility and transportability, coupled with the newest evolution of the MLRS family of munitions (Multiple Launch Rocket System) family of munitions, bring all-weather, long-range precision fires with near-vertical impact to theater – greatly reducing collateral damage.”
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HIMARS can accommodate the entire family of Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) munitions, including all variants of the Guided MLRS rocket and ATACMS missiles.
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.
“Our Armed services continue to depend on HIMARS to extend heavyweight fire support into more remote and difficult terrain,” said Rick Edwards, vice president – Tactical Missiles at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. “This award exemplifies the maturity of these technologies and the immediate need for these systems in the Global War on Terrorism.”
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. HIMARS carries a single six-pack of MLRS rockets, or one ATACMS missile.
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 Operations Iraqi Freedom.
