Lockheed Martin [LMT] has conducted another successful modernization flight test of the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
Launched from a soldier-manned High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launcher, the ATACMS missile flew 140 kilometers and demonstrated a proximity sensor height-of-burst detonation over the target area, according to Lockheed. This new ATACMS feature allows commanders to attack area targets or specific targets that have not been precisely located.
“This was our seventh consecutive successful test in the ATACMS modernization program,” said Matt Berger, precision fires program manager at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. “ATACMS is extremely accurate, affordable and mission-flexible, and is a missile our warfighters can rely upon when performance is most needed.”
The latest flight was a system-level test conducted in conjunction with the Army’s Precision Fires Rocket & Missile Systems program management office. Other test objectives included confirming the missile’s performance range and accuracy from launch to detonation, validating the interface with the HIMARS launcher and testing system software performance.
ATACMS is the Army’s only tactical long-range precision-strike surface-to-surface weapon system and represents a long-range precision fires capability that is atop the service’s modernization priorities as it plans for future wars. The missile provides combatant commanders with deep-strike capability to attack high-value targets in all weather conditions. It can be fired from the entire family of Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) launchers.
The first production contract for 150 modernized ATACMS missiles for the Army was signed in August 2017. As part of the Army’s ATACMS service life extension program, the modernization process disassembles and demilitarizes ATACMS Block 1 and 1A submunition warheads, replacing them with new unitary warheads and bringing them into compliance with Defense Department policy on cluster munitions. The modernization process also resets the missile’s 10-plus year shelf life.
More than 600 ATACMS missiles have been fired in combat, and the system has demonstrated extremely high rates of accuracy and reliability while in theater. Each ATACMS missile is packaged in a Guided Missile Launch Assembly pod and is fired from an MLRS launcher.