Lockheed Martin is increasing the production capacity for their Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) to 400 missiles per year following a pair of contract awards in recent months worth nearly $5 billion. In the Department of Defense’s daily release of contracts last Friday, they announced that the US Army had awarded Lockheed Martin “a $4,937,045,400 firm-fixed-price contract for the Precision Strike Missiles Increment One.” Previously in January, Army Contracting Command had posted a Special Notice announcing their intent to award Lockheed a follow-on Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract for PrSM Increment 1 Early Operational Capability (EOC) Lots 5-9, with a value of $4,937,045,400. The Army’s Future Years Defense Program (FYDP) projection for PrSM procurement, as per their budget request, includes:
Lot 5 (FY2025): 230 missiles;
Lot 6 (FY2026): 268 missiles;
Lot 7 (FY2027): 296 missiles;
Lot 8 (FY2028): 268 missiles;
Lot 9 (FY2029): 234 missiles;
for a total of 1,296 over the 5 year period. FYDP projections can change annually though, sometimes even mid-year when supplemental appropriations become available, which has been common over the last 3 years. An IDIQ contract affords the Army flexibility to change expected order quantity of each lot as they progress through the performance period. The Army has to date not received supplemental funding to replace any of the Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) that have been drawndown to Ukraine, but this may change as PrSM production ramps up and Lockheed is able to clear the existing backlog of 232 missiles from EOC Lots 1-4. They are currently building the 50 missiles ordered in Lot 2 at a rate of 4 per month, and are expected to finish the Lot in August. This puts the current production rate marginally above the Minimum Sustaining Rate of 40 per year, but efforts to increase the Maximum rate to 200 and then 300 were already underway. In response to an inquiry, a Lockheed Martin spokesperson confirmed to Defense Archives that with this new award they are “increasing production to 400 missiles per year”, an earlier $59 million award last December initiated the procurement of tooling to support the production ramp up.
Last December the Army successfully conducted a joint Production Qualification Test (PQT) and Limited User Test at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, which followed a November PQT in which PrSM demonstrated its ability to maneuver at hypersonic speeds to align with a target on a short-range flight trajectory. Since then an additional PQT in February was successfully conducted, bringing PrSM a step closer to Milestone C & a Full-Rate Production decision, which are expected by Q4 of FY2025, following several other PQTs and further progress on the build out of production capacity at Lockheed Martin’s Precision Fires facility in Camden, Arkansas.
The Army’s Acquisition Objective for just PrSM Increment 1 alone is 3,986 missiles, exceeding the approximately 3500 ATACMS that Lockheed Martin built for them. Future increments will “provide increased lethality against hardened targets and extend range capability,” per the Army’s Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RD&E) budget request. Early work on those increments is underway, and an increment with seeker that will enable PrSM to strike moving targets will begin procurement with Lot 6 next fiscal year.