Australia will begin building Lockheed Martin’s [LMT] Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS) munitions by 2025, in a new co-production agreement with the U.S. announced on July 29.
The new effort was detailed following the 33rd Australia-U.S. Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN), and is part of Australia’s Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance (GWEO) Enterprise initiative to bolster the country’s production capacity of such weapons.
“We are really pleased with the steps that we are taking in respect of establishing a guided weapons and explosive ordnance enterprise in this country,” Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said during a press conference following the AUSMIN meeting in Brisbane.
“And this represents a very, very significant step forward in our relationship and in the relationship of our defense industry. We are very grateful to the efforts which have been undertaken by the Biden administration in respect of defense export control legislation and creating a more seamless defense industrial base between our countries.”
Marles noted the aim to begin producing GMLRS in Australia within “two years’ time” will support efforts to boost both the U.S. and Australia’s collective industrial bases, and could be followed by similar initiatives under the GWEO Enterprise.
Along with Marles, the AUSMIN meeting also included U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Penny Wong.
“We’re racing to accelerate Australia’s access to priority munitions through a streamlined acquisition process. We’re also thrilled to announce that we’re taking steps to enable Australia to maintain, repair, and overhaul critical U.S.-sourced munitions,” Austin said.
The U.S. has been providing large quantities of GMLRS rockets to assist in Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s ongoing invasion, with the munitions fired from HIMARS launchers also built by Lockheed Martin.
“[Australia is] going to be able to produce [a capability for] what we know is a really important mission in a wide range of contingencies. So there’s been a ton of work, particularly over the last year or so, in helping make this real. It’s an important test case that we’re all going to be watching really closely,” Mara Karlin, assistant secretary of defense for strategies, plans and capabilities, told reporters on Tuesday during a Defense Writers Group discussion.
The U.S. Army in April awarded Lockheed Martin a new GMLRS production order worth nearly $4.8 billion, with work expected to be completed by the end of October 2026 (Defense Daily, April 27).
Lockheed Martin has said it aims to build 10,000 GMLRS rockets annually at its Camden, Ark., facility, as the Army ramps up production to continue supplying Ukraine and replenishing its own munitions stocks (Defense Daily, April 13).
Discussions during the AUSMIN meeting also included the U.S. announcing an intent to pursue reforms that would allow for accelerated delivery of technical data for M795 155mm artillery shells to support potential future production opportunities in Australia, according to the Pentagon.