US Army set to lift range ceiling on PrSM

The US Army is set to revise the baseline objective range requirement for the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) to ‘beyond 500 km’, subsequent to prototype demonstration flights of both competitor solutions in November and December this year.

PrSM is an accelerated army initiative, dating from March 2017, to develop and field an all-weather long-range hypersonic precision strike capability, using ground-launched missile-delivered indirect fires, to engage imprecisely located area and point targets.

Intended to replace the legacy non-IM and Cluster Munition policy-compliant Lockheed Martin MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) currently in the US Army inventory, the PrSM requirement is being competed by both Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. The prototype requirement includes a Launch Pod Missile Container and a fully integrated surface-to-surface guided missile that will be compatible with the M270A1 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) and M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers. PrSM will be delivered as a two-missiles-per-pod system – one missile in each launch cell – which, compared with the current ATACMS capability, effectively doubles the PrSM load out in both the M142 and M270 launchers.

The current objective range requirement specified in the PrSM Capability Development Document (CDD) is set at 60 km to 499 km – the maximum range permitted for land-based ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and missile launchers under the provisions of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) between the United States and the then-Soviet Union. The United States formally withdrew from the treaty on 2 August this year; Russia revoked its treaty obligations shortly thereafter.

Artist’s rendering of the Lockheed Martin Precision Strike missile being launched from an M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launcher (Lockheed Martin)