HIMARS unleashes devastating GMLRS and ATACMS, transforming ground warfare with unparalleled precision and range.
By Kris Osborn, Warrior
The combat-tested and highly revered M142 HIMARS rocket launcher is known for its adaptability, versatility and mobility, as the large, truck-mounted launch tubes can load onto a C-130 cargo plane. Unlike a standard mobile artillery system able to fire rounds out to roughly 30km, the HIMARs fires impactful weapons such as the 70km Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System and 200-mile ATACMS missile. Both of these precision weapons have been heavily upgraded in recent years and they have proven extremely effective in combat.
GMLRS brought precision
The precision-guided Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System blasted onto the scene during Operation Enduring Freedom when it was used to attack the Taliban and then also used in Iraq in Operation Iraqi Freedom as well. The arrival of the weapon, which uses GPS and IMU precision guidance emerged at a time when the Army was just beginning to shape attack tactics and strategies due to the arrival of precision land munitions. Going back to the Gulf War in the early 1990s, precision guided air attack and weapons such as Joint Direct Attack Munitions have enabled pinpoint attacks from the air, however it was 2007 when the Army introduced a first-of-its kind precision-guided land weapons such as 155mm artillery and rockets as well. These innovations were paradigm changing for land-war commanders who had for years merely thought of artillery as an “area” weapon designed to blanket an area with suppressive fire, allowing troops to maneuver.
The GPS-guided 155m artillery, called Excalibur made by Raytheon, was first fired in Iraq in 2007, and the weapon was immediately able to pinpoint targets with a Circular Error Probable of only 1-meter. This introduced an unprecedented measure of precision for ground commanders, who quickly adapted Concepts of Operation to attack insurgents and Taliban in Iraq and Afghanistan with new tactics. Around this same general time, Lockheed’s GMLRS blasted onto the scene and showed great promise destroying high-value Taliban and terrorist targets. An official familiar with OEF told Warrior years ago that a GMLRS was in fact responsible for killing deceased Taliban leader Mullah Omar.
GMLRS in Ukraine
GMLRS rockets have enabled Ukrainian fighters to target Russian equipment, forces and rocket launchers from greater stand-off ranges. Given Russia's regular indiscriminate bombing of Ukrainian neighborhoods and direct targeting of civilian areas, an ability to destroy long-range rocket and missile launchers has proven critical to Ukraine. Even if the NATO and Ukrainian surveillance could see the launchers with ISR, there needed to be a way to destroy them from the ground, given that neither side has achieved air superiority.
GMLRS Doubles Range
At its inception, GMLRS was capable of traveling as far as 70km to destroy a target. In more recent years, GMLRS creators Lockheed Martin has successfully tested a range-doubling new variant of the GMLRS which achieved ranges of 150km. In effect, the upgrade doubles the range of the weapon while sustaining precision-strike technologies. In an essay describing the flight trajectory of the Extended Range GMLRS during a key test several years ago, Lockheed weapons developers extended range from launch to impact and also integrated the weapon with HIMARS rocket launchers to achieve “overall mission performance.”
“Prior to launch, the rocket pod underwent Stockpile to Target Sequence (STS) testing. This effort simulates cumulative effects ER GMLRS will meet in the field between factory and launch for the life of the system and demonstrates durability of the missile and launch pod container,” the Lockheed essay said.
Overall, Lockheed has produced more than 60,000 GMLRS and also upgraded and adjusted the weapon to accommodate new explosive technologies such as a unitary warhead and “alternative warheads.” Also, the ability to use gyroscope types of Inertial Measurement Unit guidance can help maintain precision for the weapon in the event GPS is jammed or disabled by enemy interference.
200-Mile ATACMs
ATACMS have been upgraded over the years with new software, guidance systems, and command and control. ATACMs is a “quasi-ballistic” maneuvering missile, which deviates from a standard ballistic “arc” in trajectory to perform rapid turns and course correction. This is a deliberate function of the ATACMS, as this seemingly erratic flight behavior makes it exceptionally difficult to track or intercept.
ATACMS can fire with several different kinds of warheads, one of which is anti-personnel submunitions, which disperse or scatter in mid-air to widen destruction and potentially hit pockets of enemy fighters on the move or blanket an area with explosives..Also, along with another submunition variant, the ATACMs fire a unitary warhead designed to increase precision and direct “point” of damage while reducing collateral damage. ATACMs were fired in the Gulf War in the early 1990s and also fired extensively in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Overall, more than 500 ATACMS have been fired in combat.
Kris Osborn is President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.