Article Posted on : - Apr 25, 2012

Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System. A Lockheed photo

DALLAS (BNS): Lockheed Martin has received a contract from the US Department of Defence to develop a new variant of the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS).

Under the contract, worth $79.4 million, Lockheed will design the GMLRS with a new warhead.

"The GMLRS Alternative Warhead Engineering and Manufacturing Development Programme will run 36 months, and will focus on system performance, warhead qualification and producibility.

"The GMLRS alternative warhead is unitary and will perform as a drop-in replacement for the currently fielded Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munition warhead," the company said.

The US Army, in February this year, had selected aerospace firm ATK, a subcontractor to GMLRS prime contractor Lockheed Martin, to develop an alternative warhead for the GMLRS.

During live-fire testing by the Army, the ATK-designed alternative warhead had demonstrated that it meets performance and mission requirements, reduces technical risk and matches current weapon flight characteristics without major modifications to the existing GMLRS delivery system, Lockheed said.

The GMLRS weapons, fired from High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) or M270A1/B1 mobile launchers, are used by the US Army, Marine Corps and allied forces worldwide.

Lockheed, under an internal research and development programme, is also developing an extended-range Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System-Plus (GMLRS+) which is currently undergoing tests.