The Army on Thursday said it recently awarded Lockheed Martin [LMT] a $14.4 million production contract for High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers to help replenish stockpiles of the weapon sent to Ukraine.
“Providing security assistance to our international partners is essential, and this contract speaks volumes toward that effort,” Doug Bush, the Army’s top acquisition official, said in a statement.
The contract, officially awarded to Lockheed Martin on Oct. 6, is funded by Congress’ supplemental appropriation for Ukraine support, according to the Army.
The U.S. has been providing HIMARS launchers and associated GMLRS rockets, also built by Lockheed Martin, to Ukraine to assist in its fight against Russia’s ongoing invasion.
On Monday, the Army announced it also recently awarded $520.8 million in contract options to Lockheed Martin to help replenish GMLRS stockpiles (Defense Daily, Nov. 14).
The GMLRS deal supports procurement of up to 10,000 rockets with deliveries to begin 26 months after contract award, a spokesperson for the Army’s Program Executive Office Missiles & Space told Defense Daily on Thursday.
The Pentagon recently detailed more than $1 billion in contracts it has awarded since April to begin replenishing stockpiles of weapons sent to Ukraine, to include $33 million to Lockheed Martin for HIMARS in August, with the department having identified $7 billion in total replacement actions (Defense Daily, Sept. 9).
Bill LaPlante, the Pentagon’s top acquisition official, reiterated his goal remains to replenish inventories of equipment sent to Ukraine on a ‘one-to-one’ basis, either with current systems or next-generation updates (Defense Daily, Sept. 7).
James Taiclet, Lockheed Martin’s chairman, president and CEO, said in October that the company met with its suppliers to work toward increasing HIMARS production to 96 units per year (Defense Daily, Oct. 18).