Lockheed Martin is displaying an M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) at Avalon Airshow 2023. Yet the Australian Army will have to wait till the end of next year or early 2025 before getting its hands on its own HIMARS.
Canberra announced on 5 January that it had procured 20 rocket systems. The procurement, prospectively announced by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) on 26 May 2022, is worth USD385 million.
HIMARS is important for the Australian Army, as it has never before operated rocket artillery. It represents a generational leap, as it moves beyond tube artillery to gain a greater operational reach and stronger deterrence.
Wayne Harrison, International Business Development Principal at Lockheed Martin, listed four criteria as being important to the customer before Australia plumped for HIMARS. One was buying into a system not near the end of its lifecycle and that still has space to grow.
Secondly, Australia wants a multi-domain asset since, apart from ground-to-ground roles, maritime strike is of interest to Australia. Incidentally, the US Marine Corps (USMC) has already fired a shipborne HIMARS to strike land targets.
Thirdly, Australia is considering total cost of ownership. Rather than just worrying about the initial procurement cost, the army wants a system that will prove cost-effective throughout its lifecycle. Fourthly, Australia wanted ease of maintenance. Notably, the US military is achieving readiness levels of 95+% with HIMARS, on which subsystems can be easily replaced.
The HIMARS is based on an FMTV armoured truck chassis, and Australian systems will share the configuration of American ones. The DSCA notification listed 30 M30A2 Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS); 30 Alternative Warhead (AW) pods with Insensitive Munitions Propulsion Systems (IMPS); 30 M31A2 GMLRS Unitary high-explosive pods with IMPS; 30 XM403 Extended Range GMLRS AW pods; 30 EM404 ER GMLRS Unitary pods; and ten M57 Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS).
Australia surely has its eyes fixed on the 500km-range Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) too, a replacement for the 300km-range ATACMS. Following an April 2021 memorandum of understanding (MoU), Australia invested nearly USD50 million in Increment 2 of the PrSM’s development. An important improvement on Increment 2 PrSMs is an enhanced seeker to allow ships and air defence systems to be targeted.
The US Army will field Increment 1 missiles at the end of this year. Only one ATACMS fits in each pod, whereas two PrSMs will fit. Lockheed Martin is also working on the GMLRS Extended Range rocket, which boosts range to 150km.
In order to obtain its new artillery systems as soon as possible, Australia will likely fly them in by C-17A aircraft. Lockheed Martin and the US Army will be jointly responsible for training Australian crews.
Harrison said there is no hurdle for Australia to assimilate HIMARS. It has an advantage in that the artillery already use the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS), whilst operation of the HIMARS itself is relatively simple.
Lockheed Martin Australia is exploring options for supporting, maintaining and sustaining HIMARS within Australia. This may include an Australian support centre where activities can occur in a cost-effective manner.
Australia is familiar with the HIMARS, for both the US Army and USMC have fired the M142 in exercises on local shores.
Other HIMARS customers include Jordan, Poland, Romania, Singapore, Ukraine, the UAE and USA. Harrison said two other countries are likely to sign up soon too. To date, more than 550 launchers have been manufactured, and more than 2 million operating hours accumulated by the US-owned HIMARS fleet alone.
To meet demand, Lockheed Martin is increasing launcher production capacity by almost double, as well as larger production of rockets and missiles.
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