Lockheed Martin GMLRS ready to enter next testing phase
Lockheed Martin has conducted the fifth and final Production Qualification Test (PQT) for the new Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) Alternative Warhead. The company reports that the tests, conducted at White Sands Missile Range, were a success.
The long-range test saw four rockets fired from a HIMARS launcher and destroy their respective targets approximately 65km away.
The test is the final milestone before the Developmental Test/Operational Test (DT/OT) phase, which incorporates soldiers into the system testing. The DT/OT phase will begin this summer and will conclude with the Initial Operational Test & Evaluation (IOT&E) exercise in the fall of 2014.
Ken Musculus, vice president of Tactical Missiles for Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, said: ‘This next phase of testing will be critical in determining operational effectiveness. We are committed to the customer and their success on the battlefield, and these tests ensure production of a trustworthy and effective solution.’
Lockheed Martin received a $79.4 million contract from the US Department of Defense (DoD) in April 2012 to develop the Alternative Warhead Program (AWP). Under the terms of the contract, the Engineering, Manufacturing and Development (EMD) phase of the programme runs 36 months, focusing on system performance, warhead qualification and producibility.
The Alternative Warhead is designed to engage the same target set and achieve the same area-effects requirement as the GMLRS submunitions warhead, but without the lingering danger of unexploded ordinance. The Alternative Warhead is being developed by ATK under subcontract to Lockheed Martin.
The AWP is part of a US DoD plan to create a GMLRS variant which meets its cluster munition policy. The Lockheed Martin GMLRS Alternative Warhead programme will also be compliant with the provisions of the Convention on Cluster Munitions international treaty.
More from Land Warfare
-
![Romania opens the chequebook and reorganises as it watches Russian aggression]()
Romania opens the chequebook and reorganises as it watches Russian aggression
Romania is retiring old systems, some Soviet, and replacing them with western equipment from countries such as Sweden and Turkey and boosting existing modern fleets.
-
![Milrem picks Texelis for partnership in drive to develop large UGV]()
Milrem picks Texelis for partnership in drive to develop large UGV
Milrem has delivered or is building a total of 200 Tracked Hybrid Modular Infantry System UGVs and has chosen Texelis as partner in its effort to develop a UGV.
-
![Sweden takes delivery of first M3 amphibious bridge and ferry system]()
Sweden takes delivery of first M3 amphibious bridge and ferry system
The most recent nation to join NATO has joined other member nations in using the M3 system.
-
![CV90 delivery to Slovakia imminent]()
CV90 delivery to Slovakia imminent
Slovakia is undergoing a radical refresh of its equipment, like many central and eastern European countries, and the arrival of new vehicles will form a substantial part of this.
-
![Mortar mobility: Patria’s TREMOS takes aim at the modern battlespace]()
Mortar mobility: Patria’s TREMOS takes aim at the modern battlespace
In conversation... Patria’s Lauri Pauniaho talks to Shephard's Gerrard Cowan about how high mobility levels are essential for mortar systems in the face of modern counter-battery fire, and how a new platform-agnostic module can combine existing vehicles and mortar barrels into a cost-effective new weapon system.
