Lockheed Martin delivered the first Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) M270A2 launcher to the U.S. Army in a ceremony today at the Precision Fires Center of Excellence in Camden, Arkansas. Lockheed Martin, in partnership with the Red River Army Depot, is modernizing M270 with a brand new 600 horsepower engine, an Improved Armored Cab, and Common Fire Control System (CFCS). This upgrade provides compatibility with future munitions like the Extended-Range GMLRS and the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM). The complete restoration ensures the M270-series launcher remains highly effective and reliable to serve the U.S. Army and partner nations through 2050.
The M270A2 is a Joint All Domain Operations (JADO) enabling, heavy-tracked mobile launcher, transportable via C-17 and C-5 aircraft. The launcher and its munitions are designed to enable soldiers to support the joint fight by engaging and defeating artillery, air defense concentrations, trucks, light armor and personnel carriers at greater distances than previously capable. The enhanced MLRS M270A2 launcher can engage and relocate at high speed, dramatically reducing an adversary’s ability to locate the system. Similar units have been in operation with the U.S. Army since 1983.
The M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) is a mobile, survivable and highly effective with an outstanding track-record of combat proven reliability. Ongoing modernization efforts toMLRS launcher will ensure capability and support for the U.S. Army and partners nations through 2050. Recently, the U.S. Army awarded more than $400 million in production contracts for both M270 and HIMARS launchers. The M270 launcher has decades of combat-proven reliability protecting service members and is now modernized with upgrades that will provide interoperability with partner nations and fire the next-generation munitions like the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) and Extended-Range Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (ER GMLRS).
The M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (M270 MLRS) is an American armored, self-propelled, multiple rocket launcher. The first M270s were delivered to the U.S. Army in 1983. The MLRS has since been adopted by several NATO countries. Some 1,300 M270 systems have been manufactured in the United States and in Western Europe, along with more than 700,000 rockets. Production of the M270 ended in 2003, when a last batch was delivered to the Egyptian Army. In early March 2021, Lockheed announced they had successfully fired an extended-range version of the GMLRS out to 80 km (50 mi), part of an effort to increase the rocket’s range to 150 km (93 mi). Later in March the ER-GMLRS was fired out to 135 km (84 mi).
