The projectile has proven to be a vital addition to the US Army’s M142 HIMARS launcher—and Lockheed Martin has dramatically expanded production at its factory in Arkansas.

During a recent ceremony at its facility in Camden, Arkansas, aerospace and defense giant Lockheed Martin announced that it hit two critical new milestones with its Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS), the all-weather, surface-to-surface precision-guided rocket artillery platform that has earned a reputation for being a “70-kilometer sniper rifle.”

The company confirmed that it had recently delivered the 100,000th GMRLS rocket—hitting its annual production rate of nearly 14,000 rockets ahead of schedule.

“We are proud of our longstanding role supporting the GMLRS program and our contributions to this production milestone by delivering critical components, including warheads, rocket motor cases and launch pod containers,” said Chris Haynes, senior vice president and general manager at GDOTS. “Additionally, the recent solid rocket motor test represents an important milestone in our collaboration with Lockheed Martin to expand solid rocket motor production capacity. Together, these efforts reflect our shared commitment to expanding domestic manufacturing capacity, strengthening the defense industrial base and ensuring US and allied forces have the capabilities they need.”

Lockheed Martin’s GMLRS Program Is a Team Effort

The defense giant acknowledged that the GMLRS program benefited from a strong supply chain within America’s defense industrial base, and includes more than 200 suppliers spread across 35 states—of which more than 50 are designated as “small business.”

At its Arkansas production center in Camden, GMLRS supports more than 200 jobs. The facility is undergoing an expansion that will see 50 percent more employees hired to support accelerated production of critical ordnance for the United States military, including the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (PAC-3 MSE) interceptors and the next-generation, surface-to-surface Precision Strike Missile (PrSM).

Lockheed Martin further recognized its collaboration with General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems (GDOTS), which conducted the first test of its solid rocket motor for the GMLRS, with continued testing to come as the motor qualification is completed next year.

“Today’s production milestones reinforce how Lockheed Martin is delivering with urgency, investing in our supply chain and ensuring American forces have what they need, before they need it, to defend here and around the world,” said Gaylia Campbell, vice president and general manager, Lockheed Martin Tactical Missiles. “Our team is working tirelessly in close coordination with the Department of War and industry partners like General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems to meet the demand.”

GMLRS Already in the News After Successful Test Fire

First introduced in 2005, the GMLRS was developed to transform traditional saturation rocket artillery into a pinpoint strike weapon. It is fired from a truck-mounted M142 HIMARS or M270 MLRS family of launchers, which hold six rockets per pod, with one or two pods per vehicle.

The GMLRS is noted for its extreme accuracy, hence its description as an extreme long-distance sniper rifle, as each rocket employs a GPS-aided inertial navigation system (INS) paired with four forward-mounted canards. The basic GMLRS Unitary (M31) features a 200-lb (90.7 kg) high-explosive unitary warhead designed for point targets with minimal collateral damage. An alternative ordnance, the M30E1/GMLRS-AW, carries a 200-lb fragmenting warhead packed with roughly 160,000 preformed tungsten fragments to engage area targets while complying with unexploded ordnance policies.

The two milestones this week follow another one last month at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, where a GMLRS was successfully redirected in flight after being launched from a M142 HIMARS. As previously reported, the rocket’s target was altered via the modular and adaptable Strigo datalink and the Remote Interceptor Guidance-360 (RIG-360) while in flight. The missile was rerouted to successfully destroy a moving target.

About the Author: Peter Suciu

Peter Suciu regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. He has contributed to dozens of newspapers, magazines, and websites over a 30-year career in journalism, including Forbes and Clearance Jobs. He is based in Michigan. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author at Editor@nationalinterest.org.

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