The US Army awarded Lockheed Martin US$353.2 million follow-on contract for the seventh production lot of Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) Unitary rockets. Rockets from this production lot will be supplied to the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps, and to the armies of Italy, Jordan and Singapore. This contract represents Italy’s first purchase of GMLRS rockets. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in December 2013. The company is currently supplying GMLRS under a $438 million production contract for 767 rockets, awarded in June 2011, that will expire in April 2014.
GMLRS is an all-weather, rapidly deployable, long-range rocket that delivers precision strike beyond the range of most conventional weapons. It is designed for destroying targets at ranges up to 70 kilometers. A longer-range GMLRS+ rocket, with a reach of more than 120 kilometers, is being developed and tested by Lockheed Martin using company funds.
Each GMLRS rocket is packaged in an MLRS launch pod and is fired from the Lockheed Martin HIMARS or M270 family of launchers. According to the manufacturer records, GMLRS Unitary rockets have achieved a combat-reliability rate of 98 percent.
According to Lt. Col. T.J. Wright, the U.S. Army’s product manager for Precision Guided Missiles and Rockets, “GMLRS continues to be the long-range precision-fire weapon of choice when commanders need to decisively and accurately attack high value targets while minimizing the risk of collateral damage.” U.S. and allied forces have fired more than 2,200 of these precision munitions in support of military operations.
