The U.S. Army has awarded Lockheed Martin a $158 million contract to produce additional Early Operational Capability (EOC) Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM). This is the second production contract received to date and follows a successful Manufacturing Readiness Assessment milestone visit with the Army – a critical step in the development program advancing PrSM closer to fielding. The PrSM will use advanced propulsion to fly faster and farther (originally out to 310 miles (500 km)) while also being thinner and sleeker, increasing loadout to two per pod, doubling the number carried by M270 MLRS and M142 HIMARS launchers.
The U.S. Army awarded the first EOC production and Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) contracts in September 2021. Lockheed Martin is currently building PrSMs to fulfill the Army’s initial production contract and additional rounds that will be used in upcoming system qualification tests. EMD will result in a fully qualified system and is the last phase of the development program before a full-rate production decision will be made in 2025. The next set of flight tests will begin in 2023. These tests follow a record-setting flight surpassing 499 km last year at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The PrSM is the U.S. Army’s next-generation tactical missile supporting the number one modernization priority for Long-Range Precision Fires (LRPF). For more than 40 years, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control has been the leading designer and manufacturer of long-range, surface-to-surface precision strike solutions, providing highly reliable, combat-proven systems such as the M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (M270 MLRS), M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) and Guided MLRS (GMLRS) to domestic and international customers.
The Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) is a tactical ballistic missile being developed by the United States Army to replace the MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS). In July 2021, the US announced that Australia had become a partner in the PrSM Program with the Australian Army signing a memorandum of understanding for Increment 2 of the program with the US Army’s Defense Exports and Cooperation and had contributed US$54 million.[9][10] The United Kingdom also announced its intentions to field PrSM from 2024 as part of an upgrade to the British Army’s M270 MLRS.