A US Army HIMARS system launches a GMLRS round during Exercise ‘Eager Lion' in Jordan in 2017. (US Army/Sgt 1st Class Steven Queen)
Lockheed Martin Australia (LMA) and Thales Australia have agreed to develop solid-fuel rocket motors (SRMs) and eventually warheads for the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS).
The agreement, which is aligned with Australia's Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance (GWEO) Enterprise, was announced at the opening day of the Land Forces 2024 exhibition in Melbourne on 11 September.
“The teaming agreement production effort will focus on jointly developed tasks to produce an Australian SRM system as well as to explore supply chain options to establish Australian industrial capability for related components,” LMA said in a press release.
LMA said collaboration would also assess the possibility of designing, developing, and producing GMLRS components and inform future GWEO decisions including those on potential SRM manufacturing in Australia.
Under the agreement, the components would be built at the government-owned Thales-operated facilities at Mulwala, New South Wales, and Benalla, Victoria. These sites produce explosives, propellants, and a range of munitions for the Australian Defence Force (ADF).
Ken Kota, Lockheed Martin's vice-president of international integration, said, “We are announcing a teaming agreement with Thales Australia to produce solid rocket motors, fully utilising the Benalla and Mulwala capabilities.”
James Heading, LMA director of programmes, Strategic Capabilities Office, said LMA was considering the Australian production of various GMLRS components. “GMLRS was chosen because of its maturity of design – 70,000 produced already. It is well known to us, it's a very important weapon in the inventory,” he said.
“It also sets the scene to make that progression through to PrSMs [Precision Strike Missiles] and in future into hypersonics.”
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