Canada has ordered 26 M142 HIMARS rocket artillery systems for US$1.88 billion (€1.62 billion). The transaction is carried out as a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) government-to-government deal. Already in April, the U.S. government awarded Lockheed Martin a production contract totaling $1.33 billion, which included not only units for the U.S. Army and the Marine Corps but also HIMARS for sale to Australia, Estonia, Canada, Sweden, and Taiwan.
With the exception of Sweden, which has not yet decided to purchase, Canada is the only one of these countries to introduce the system anew. HIMARS has been selected here for the Long-Range Precision Strike (Land) project. Delivery is expected to begin in 2029 and includes not only the launcher vehicles but also ammunition, spare parts, training, and support services.
Canada is expected to become the eleventh HIMARS user
In addition, the system is also used by Jordan, Poland, Romania, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and Ukraine, where it has been successfully employed against the Russian invasion forces. Canada is therefore expected to become the eleventh user. Further orders include Italy (21), Croatia (eight), Latvia (six), and Lithuania (eight). Additionally, Bahrain, Bulgaria, Morocco, the Philippines and Hungary are interested in HIMARS.
By contrast, the Netherlands chose the Elbit EuroPULS system, which is also being introduced by the German armed forces. Norway selected the South Korean M239 Chunmoo, which is in service in Estonia and Poland parallel to HIMARS. HIMARS uses munitions from the MLRS family, 227 mm in caliber, in single launch pods of six rounds or with a ballistic missile ATACMS, and in the future also two Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM) on a wheeled chassis.
