The Army recently established a new 85-kilometer distance record for the Lockheed Martin [LMT] Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System rocket, the company said.
The rocket destroyed a target 85 kilometers from the launch site during a system demonstration at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. The previous maximum range for GMLRS was 70 kilometers.
The Army’s decision to test the Global Positioning System (GPS)-guided GMLRS rocket to 85 kilometers was based on the system’s demonstrated accuracy and minimal collateral damage during more than 750 successful engagements in the theater of operations.
“Additional range for GMLRS represents greater safety for Soldiers,” Scott Arnold, vice president for Precision Fires and Combat Maneuver Systems at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, said. “Greater standoff distances allow warfighters to operate further away from hostile areas, travel shorter distances to launch their weapons, and ensures rapid fire support.”
This was the fourth flight test in the GMLRS Unitary Production Verification Test program. The GMLRS rocket was fired from a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launcher.
“The success of this system speaks for the quality work that our team is doing every day,” Col. David Rice, Army project manager for Precision Fires Rocket and Missile Systems, said. “We are a constant in this fight; always mission ready and on target. In this fight, precision is the name of the game, and that is why our Soldiers love this system.”
GMLRS is an all-weather, precision strike, artillery rocket system that achieves greater range and precision accuracy requiring fewer rockets to defeat targets and limiting collateral damage. GMLRS is a Future Force system that provides the joint war fighter with immediate, precision fires to engage, destroy and deny terrain to the enemy.