11 October 2022

AUSA 2022: PrSM missile tests slated for second half of 2023

by Daniel Wasserbly

Lockheed Martin's surface-to-surface missile solution for the US Army's Precision Strike Missile took its inaugural flight in December 2019, shown here. Further testing for the first and second increments is scheduled for 2023. (US Army)

Lockheed Martin‘s Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) is to undergo more flight tests in the second half of 2023 and is on schedule to provide early operational capability missiles that same year, Paula Hartley, the company's vice-president for tactical missiles, told reporters on 10 October.

PrSM Increment 1 missiles, with an undisclosed range of 500-plus km, are in production and will have three tests in 2023 “to further demonstrate the capability as these early operational missiles come off the production line”, Hartley said at the Association of the United States Army's (AUSA 2022) annual conference in Washington, DC.

A second PrSM increment is to add a multimode seeker and is being developed in partnership with army laboratories (Lockheed Martin will be the integrator). A third multimode seeker flight test is expected in Boreal in spring (March to May) of 2023, Hartley said.

PrSM Increment 3 would focus on adding smart submunitions and multiple target capabilities, but has been leapfrogged in priority and schedule by Increment 4, which would increase PrSM's range to 1,000 km.

Hartley said a PrSM Increment 4 decision was upcoming, and that Lockheed Martin responded with a proposal and was expecting a downselect decision from the army sometime in October 2022.

Lockheed Martin‘s Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) is to undergo more flight tests in the second half...

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