Lockheed Martin has received a $139.6 million contract to provide 44 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) to the U.S. Army. This order will increase the Army’s HIMARS launcher fleet to 375, with deliveries continuing through January 2013.
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.
Offering high mobility, and suitability to move on and off roads, HIMARS proved itself as a valuable weapon. “Half of the more than 1,900 Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) rockets expended by the U.S. Army and Marine Corps in Iraq and Afghanistan have been fired from HIMARS,” said Scott Arnold, vice president for Precision Fires at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control.
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 U.S. Army and Marines operate HIMARS, as do several international allies. Unlike the tracked MLRS, HIMARS maintains intra-theater mobility through C-130 transportability, as it can be deployed into areas previously inaccessible to heavier launchers and provides a force multiplier to the modular brigade.
