Breakthrough 400km Army Precision Strike Missile Arrives Next Year

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

The US Army’s breakthrough Precision Strike Missile is slated to reach what’s called “Early Operational Capability” by as soon as next year, a welcome development for the service as it has been refining and testing the new weapon for several years.

Designed as a first-of-its-kind high-speed, long-range surface-to-surface ground attack weapon, the PrSM is engineered to bring longer-range and precision to ground rockets and artillery which typically operate at shorter ranges.

A published essay from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army, Acquisition, Logistics & Technology describes the weapon in terms of “deep-strike” capability.

“The mission of the Long Range Precision Fires (LRPF) Missile is to attack, neutralize, suppress and destroy targets using missile-delivered indirect precision fires. LRPF provides field artillery units with long-range and deep-strike capability,” the ASALT essay stated.

The ranges of the PrSM are arguably paradigm-changing. Standard Army artillery can travel roughly 30km, the Army’s fast-arriving Extended Range Cannon Artillery can travel more than 62km, and the Army’s Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) are precision-guided land-fired rockets able to travel at least 80km. The PrSM, however, is slated to travel at least 400km or longer to targets, bringing new stand-off ranges and tactical options for ground commanders.

The most recent PrSM test, conducted by the Army and Lockheed Martin, placed the weapon in what developers explained as a stressful, dynamic environment during a short flight. A Lockheed Martin essay says the “qualification test” verified the missile’s “trajectory control.”