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ARLINGTON VIRGINIA (BNS): The US Army has selected ATK to develop an alternative warhead for the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS).

The GMLRS alternative warhead eliminates the use of submunitions, but performs as a drop-in replacement for the currently-fielded Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munition (DPICM) warhead.

"This new warhead offers the advantage of uncompromised performance without leaving unexploded submunitions on the battlefield," Dave Wise, Vice President and General Manager of ATK Defence Components said in a company statement.

ATK was one of three companies competing to proceed into the Engineering and Manufacturing Design and Demonstration (EMDD) phase of the program. ATK will be a subcontractor to GMLRS prime contractor Lockheed Martin.

During live-fire testing by the US Army, ATK's alternative warhead, featuring ATK's Lethality Enhanced Ordnance (LEO) design, demonstrated that it meets performance and mission requirements, lowers technical risk, and matches current weapon flight characteristics without modifications to the existing GMLRS delivery system.

In addition, the design improves user safety by lessening the risk of chain-reaction explosions should the warhead be struck by bullets or fragments, or encounter other hazardous events.

ATK will refine the design to enhance manufacturability, ensuring a low risk transition to low rate initial production.