Lockheed Martin [LMT] says it recently successfully conducted two anti-jamming Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) Unitary rocket Phase II Product Qualification Test flights at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
These GPS2 jamming tests demonstrated both GMLRS rocket performance while in a GPS jamming environment at long range, as well as how the warhead functioned using the Point Detonating fuze within the jamming environment. All tests objectives were achieved.
“Throughout the process to achieve these milestones, the highest levels in the Department of the Army, the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Staff have recognized the outstanding success of the GMLRS program,” Lt. Col. Mark Pincoski, U.S. Army product manager, Precision Guided Missiles and Rockets, said in a statement issued by Lockheed Martin.
The two missions were fired from the HIMARS launcher using one rocket per mission after the launch pod container was conditioned to the hot temperature extreme, the company said. The first rocket employed the GMLRS vertical trajectory shaping software that allows the rocket to impact the target vertically, while the second incorporated the nominal trajectory shaping software, which allows for the standard ballistic trajectory flight pattern.
Both rockets flew their expected trajectories and functioned as designed in the target area.
Al Duchesne, director of Missile and Rocket Programs at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, said: “These tests validated a very tough requirement. This means that GMLRS Unitary can be effectively and productively employed every time–when low collateral damage is a concern and in close proximity to friendly troops–given its surgical precision.”
The tests further qualified the effects of the unitary warhead on the target following detonation, and continued to demonstrate that the Follow-On configuration hardware and software design complies with the program objectives and requirements, the statement said.
“This mission specifically demonstrated rocket performance and provided system performance data in a GPS jamming environment,” Pincoski said.