Camden News 11-09-2009

    DALLAS – Lockheed Martin successfully fired a U.S. Army Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System rocket 92 kilometers in a recent test at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., according to a news release from the company.
   "The flawless test highlighted recent product improvements of this battle-proven system to give it a longer reach, maintaining its accuracy and effectiveness while minimizing potential collateral damage," the news release stated.
   Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control Camden Plant is located in Highland Industrial Park. "Lockheed Martin is constantly improving its products to give our customers more value and enhanced capabilities," Scott Arnold, vice president for Precision Fires and Combat Maneuver Systems at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, said in the news release. "Operational feed back from deployed forces is providing us valuable insight so we can enhance our systems’ capabilities to better support the service members we rely on to defend our nations’ frontiers." According to the company, GMLRS is a combat-proven evolutionary family of rockets that also scored numerous successes again in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, where more than 1,200 have been fired by the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, and British Army artillery in Afghanistan and Iraq. The GMLRS system in combat has maintained a reliability rating of over 98 percent. GMLRS is the world’s premier long-range rocket artillery round designed specifically for destroying high-priority targets at ranges of 70 km and beyond, according to the news release. Employed in both urban and non-urban environments, it is able to operate in all climate and light conditions while remaining beyond the range of most conventional weapons. 
 

    According to the news release, the GMLRS rocket used in this test was fired from a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System launcher, the newest member of the MLRS launcher family. HIMARS can accommodate the entire family of MLRS munitions, including all variants of the Guided MLRS rocket and Army Tactical Missile System missiles. Designed to enable troops to engage and defeat artillery, air defense concentrations, trucks, light armor and personnel carriers, as well as support troop and supply concentrations, HIMARS can launch its missiles and move away from the launch area before enemy forces locate the launch site. HIMARS can be transported by C-130 "Hercules" aircraft, which allows HIMARS to be deployed into areas inaccessible to heavier launchers, and is a force multiplier to the units itsupports.
   GMLRS is an international cooperative program among the United States, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. Other international customers include the United Arab Emirates and Singapore.