Article Posted on : - Feb 01, 2011

High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS). Photo: Lockheed Martin

DALLAS (BNS): US Army has awarded a $139.6 million contract to Lockheed Martin for supplying 44 combat-proven High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) launcher fleet.

“HIMARS brings soldiers an agile, responsive and accurate delivery system of extremely precise fires,” Col. David J. Rice, US Army programme manager for Precision Fires, Rocket and Missile Systems said.

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.

“Half of the more than 1,900 Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) rockets expended by the US 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 defence 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 US Army and Marines operate HIMARS, as do several international allies.

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. The HIMARS fire control system, electronics and communications units are interchangeable with the existing MLRS M270A1 launcher, and the crew and training are the same.

The company will perform work at its facilities center in Camden, Arkansas and Grand Prairie, Texas.

The delivery of the HIMARS launcher fleet will begin from January 2013.