With a pair of contract awards this month, the US Army continues to build out & modernize the rocket artillery fleets of both themselves and a long list of international partners. Demand for Lockheed Martin’s combat proven systems, particularly the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) is at unprecedented levels. The Russian Invasion of Ukraine has both demonstrated their effectiveness and driven other European states to acquire the capabilities that the Multiple Launch Rocket System [MLRS] Family of Munitions (MFOM) provides.
In the first award on May 9, 2025, they received a $742 million contract for the production of HIMARS. The Army allocated $79.4 million in Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Missile Procurement funds for the procurement of 10 vehicles, at a marginal unit cost of $5,325,700, per budget documents. This is a small order for the Army compared to past lots, with 28 last year in FY 2024 and 83 in FY 2023. The FY 2023 was unusually large though due to $516 million in supplemental funds being made available to replace vehicles which were transferred to Ukraine. The Army’s small order this year is compensated by record demand from Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers, with 86 vehicles initially estimated by the Army to be put on contract as part of this production lot. FMS customers that may be among this group include: Morocco, Australia, Latvia, Italy, Norway and Croatia. 96 vehicles is coincidentally the exact number that Lockheed Martin has the capacity to produce at their Camden, Arkansas facility. In a statement to Defense Archives, a Lockheed Martin spokesperson confirmed that they are “tooled and capable of 8 [HIMARS] per month and are meeting contract requirements on schedule.”
The second award, on May 23, 2025, is a $214 million contract for the recapitalization of M270A1 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems to the new M270A2 variant. The Army allocated $185.8 million in FY 2025 Missile Procurement funds for 15 M270A1s to be upgraded. The balance of the funding comes from FMS customers/cooperative partners Finland, Italy and the United Kingdom. The UK currently fields a fleet of 43 M270A1s and is known to have at least 9 vehicles contracted for upgrade. Italy is understood to have a fleet of approximately 20, which will be upgraded in its entirety. Finland operates 41 vehicles, which will also be fully upgraded. Work on Finland’s FMS case began last year after the FY 2024 MLRS MODS program contract award, with work on the British & Italian cases predating that further. The US Army’s own Acquisition Objective for M270A2s is 344 vehicles. 160 unservicable M270A0s have already been recapitalized into M270A2s through the MLRS Fleet Expansion effort, and 184 M270A1s will be recapitalized through the MLRS Fleet Upgrade effort. The M270A2 offers a number of improvements over legacy variants, including a new Improved Armored Cab, the Improved Launcher Mechanical System, new engines, upgraded and rebuilt transmissions, improved system components, Assured Position, Navigation and Timing (APNT) hardware upgrades, and the new Common Fire Control System (CFCS), which unlocks compatibility with the newest additions to MFOM: the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) & Extended Range-Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (ER-GMLRS).
There are at least half a dozen other operators of legacy M270 variants that could seek to upgrade their fleets as well, but one that will almost certainly not is France. The French Army’s Frappe Longue Portée Terrestre (Long Range-Land Strike) program has budgeted $663 million to develop a “sovereign” system in France and procure 13 vehicles by 2030 to replace their existing fleet of M270 Lance-Roquettes Unitaire. Numerous French firms, including teams consisting of Safran & MBDA, and Thales & ArianeGroup have expressed interest in this program, but there is one curious new addition to the competition. At the end of last month, Turgis Gaillard unveiled their Foudre (Lightning) MLRS, which has a launcher module that is very similar to that of Lockheed Martin’s HIMARS. Further to this, despite its advertisement as “100% French”, media publication Challenges is reportedly told that it will be fully compatible with the American MLRS Family of Munitions. This would make Foudre neither “sovereign” or “100% French”, as it would have to equip the CFCS, produced by American firm L3Harris, in order to be fully compatible with MFOM.
Defense Archives reached out to Lockheed Martin to inquire about the claimed MFOM compatibility, and whether this was something that they were supporting, and received the following statement: “Lockheed Martin is not supporting Turgis Gailliard. GMLRS [Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems], and the MLRS Family of Munitions, are not compatible or approved by the U.S. Government for use with other systems. Munitions such as GMLRS and ATACMS [Army Tactical Missile System] can only be fired by HIMARS and M270 platforms because they share a common fire control system. The U.S. government would have to give permission for its missiles to be used with another system.”
The requirement of US government permission is of course why the French military wanted to develop their own “sovereign” system in the first place. Pursuant to the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) and its associated International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), the US government maintains export control over US defense articles and technology possessed by other countries, even if it is license produced. Most countries have similar provisions in their arms export control regimes, and some have even stricter ones. Israel, South Korea and Switzerland are prime examples that have been in the spotlight recently due to their refusal to sign re-export permits for third parties to send military aid to Ukraine. This has not precluded some European states like Spain & the Netherlands from buying the Israeli PULS MLRS instead of HIMARS though. Denmark’s decision to do the same has been mired in controversy after reports that the Israeli systems were delivered without military grade GPS. PULS also has the disadvantage of being untested in peer combat, and a very limited production base for munitions.
MFOM by comparison, has active production lines for 4 combat munitions, with efforts underway to set up additional lines in Europe. GMLRS, ER-GMLRS, ATACMS and PrSM All Up Rounds are assembled at the same Camden facility that produces HIMARS. Lockheed Martin and German defense firm Rheinmetall also have an agreement to establish MFOM production in Germany as well. GMLRS is currently produced at a rate of 14,000 annually, with a US Army requirement for 19,000 per year. The ATACMS line is facilitized for up to 500 per year, and Lockheed Martin is actively increasing PrSM facilitization to 400 per year. Rheinmetall expects their joint venture with Lockheed Martin to produce 10,000 solid rocket motors annually, with initial deliveries next year. 10,000 missiles of various types would also be made annually, with production starting in 2027. These robust production rates across both the firing platforms and munitions will be hard for any competitor to beat. The ongoing War in Ukraine has demonstrated the necessity of having sufficient ammunition reserves to support high intensity, large scale combat operations.
Edit: In a separate award notice posted to the US Government’s contracting portal on May 27, it was revealed that the $214 million M270 contract includes options worth $333,373,398, for a total possible value of $547,737,935. They also detail the exact breakdown of vehicles to undergo recapitalization. “This action includes a quantity of 24 launchers for the US Army, 2 launchers for the United Kingdom, 4 repair and recovery vehicles for the United Kingdom, 7 launchers for Italy, 24 launchers for Finland. In addition to launchers the contract also procures spares parts.” It is unclear what accounts for the 9 additional launchers for the US Army beyond what was budgeted for. It may be that the addition of Finland’s order significantly reduced the per unit cost of the work, allowing the cost savings to be reinvested into accelerating the pace of US Army vehicle inductions into the MLRS Fleet Upgrade effort. It is common practice for the Department of Defense to convert such cost savings accrued from the economies of scale provided by FMS orders into larger order quantities for themselves.