Page 24 - Australian Defence Magazine Dec-Jan 2023

24 DEFENCE BUSINESS HIMARS
DECEMBER 2022-JANUARY 2023 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
The accuracy of the system has also been demonstrated in Ukraine, with television images of precision strikes to bridges and other infrastructure.
“The other standout feature of HIMARS is from a Joint All Domain Operations (JADO) standpoint, its interoper- ability and ability to integrate into what we call a larger architecture,” Stanton explains. “Those things are going to be rather significant as we talk about things like support- ing Integrated Air and Missile Defence (IAMD).”
HIMARS is currently operating in 18 countries, includ- ing Ukraine, and that number is expected to grow to around 25 over the next three years. One of these potential custom- ers is of course Australia but, due to global demand, it is un- clear when we could actually take delivery of the first units.
Lockheed Martin is currently in full rate production of the M142 vehicles and is working through the contractual details with the US Army to increase production to 96 units per year (eight per month).
GMLRS & ER GMLRS
The most common munition used by HIMARS is the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS, pro- nounced ‘gimmlers’), which is a 9-inch rocket capable of ranges between 15 and 70 km.
Six GMLRS rockets are installed in each pod and once fired, the pod cannot be reused and is discarded. Perhaps the Achilles heel of the HIMARS system from a produc- tion point of view however, is that the pods have been out of production for some time. Current stocks are made up of unfired pods whose missiles have reached their shelf-life and which are then refurbished.
GMLRS is guided by an Inertial Navigation System (INS), aided by GPS and offers two types of warheads: a Unitary warhead or Alternative Warhead (AW). The 200 lb Unitary variant offers a tri-mode fuse – proximity, point and delay – and integrates a blast/fragmentation warhead.
The Alternative Warhead variant is a wide-area effects weapon that uses common sub-systems components, to- gether with a Height of Burst (HOB) fuse.
GMLRS has been in full-rate production since 2008 and Lockheed Martin has produced over 60,000 rounds since that time. To meet global demand the factory in Camden is now tooled to produce 10,000 rockets per year and Lock- heed Martin received a US Government Fiscal Year 2023 order in October for up to the full number of 10,000 rounds.
The latest variant of the baseline GMLRS munition is an extended range version, known as ER GMLRS, which increases the range to 150 km. To achieve this, the rocket body has been enlarged to 10 inches diameter, presumably allowing more propellant and perhaps a larger rocket mo- tor. Despite these changes, six EM GMLRS rockets are still installed in each pod and the warheads remain un- changed over the baseline weapon.
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