The U.S. Army this week issued a solicitation for a total of 133,014 precision-guided GMLRS missiles for the M142 HIMARS and M270 MLRS systems. According to the proposal, from 2028 through 2034, 19,002 units are to be produced annually and delivered starting in February 2030. This would implement the Army’s plans announced already a year ago. The total quantity surpasses the 75,000 missiles of this type that were delivered to the Army from introduction in 2005 through 2024.
GMLRS has been deployed extensively and very effectively in Ukraine and recently also by the United States itself against Iran. The high consumption has severely depleted inventories, as with other precision weapons. Last year, the manufacturer Lockheed Martin announced that it would raise its annual production from 10,000 to 14,000 units. The Army’s current plans would require further increases. According to the solicitation, bidders are to submit their respective manufacturing plans by September 1.
GMLRS with two different warheads
The GMLRS ammunition adds precision guidance to the 227-mm artillery rocket via satellite and inertial navigation, achieving impact dispersions of between two and 15 meters at the target. The two types, M30 and M31, have a range of 15 to 84 kilometers, with the M31 carrying a 90-kilogram fragmentation warhead. The M31A1 version added the impact or delay fuze with a proximity function, and the M31A2, produced since 2019, uses a new insensitive explosive.
The M30 originally contained 404 hollow-charge bomblets. In the M30A1 version these were replaced by an “alternative warhead” that contains about 182,000 formed tungsten fragments. Also here since 2019 only the M30A2 with insensitive explosive is produced. Approximately 1,800 GMLRS missiles were also delivered to Germany. In the United States, the ER-GMLRS variant is currently being reintroduced with an extended range to 150 kilometers, which has already been ordered by Finland.
