A US Army HIMARS launches a GMLRS rocket during Exercise ‘Eager Lion' in Jordan in 2017. (US Army/Sgt 1st Class Steven Queen)
The US Department of State has approved the possible sale to Australia of Lockheed Martin's Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) Alternate Warhead (AW) rockets.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DCSA) said on 10 March that the deal is estimated to be worth USD91.2 million and will feature the sale 54 GMLRS AW rockets.
According to the DSCA, the deal will also cover telemetry kits, engineering services, technical assistance, and related logistics and programme support. It said Congress has been notified about the potential Foreign Military Sales (FMS) programme.
The DSCA said, “The proposed sale will support [Australia's] goal of improving national and territorial defence, interoperability with US forces, and working to uplift industry as a new source of supply.”
The Australian Army will operate the GMLRS AW rockets from its 42 on-order Lockheed Martin M142 High-Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARSs), which were ordered in two batches in 2022 and 2023.
As part of these two deals, the US also agreed to supply to Australia GMLRS AW pods with Insensitive Munitions Propulsion Systems (IMPSs).
The GMLRS AW was developed with the aim to reduce or eliminate the risk of unexploded ordnance (UXO), with a threshold requirement of not more than 1% UXO, in accordance with US Department of Defense (DoD) policy.
The GMLRS AW rocket consists of a 91 kg fragmenting warhead. The warhead is filled with 180,000 tungsten-steel balls and is claimed to be effective against lightly armoured vehicles and personnel.
For more information, please see227 mm MLRS/GMLRS rockets .
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