Guided MLRS Unitary

By Scott R. Gourley

One concrete example that highlights the contribution of precision fires in today’s tactical environments can be found in the expanding combat application of the guided multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) unitary munition. The guided MLRS unitary is an outgrowth of the XM30 guided MLRS rocket that was developed under an international partnership of the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, France and Germany. With a range in excess of 70 kilometers, the GMLRS system incorporates a GPS-aided inertial guidance package integrated on a product-improved rocket body. Small canards on the guided rocket nose provide basic maneuverability and enhance the accuracy of the system, which is capable of delivering several hundred dual purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) bomblets.

In June 2003, Lockheed Martin received its first GMLRS low rate initial production (LRIP-1) contract, with the final rockets delivered under LRIP-1 in May 2005. (Additional GMLRS LRIP contracts followed LRIP-1).

In an urban/counterinsurgency setting that places increasing importance on minimizing collateral damage, planners saw the need to replace the hundreds of DPICM bomblets with a single 196-pound unitary warhead, giving battlefield commanders the ability to attack targets up to 70 kilometers away with a precise high precision blast.

Thus in 2002, Lockheed Martin conducted a system demonstration of a quick reaction GMLRS unitary rocket, together with a nine-month component advanced development program.

In October 2003, Lockheed Martin received a $119 million contract to conduct system development and demonstration (SDD) for a guided MLRS variant with a single warhead. Representing a spiral-development to expand the MLRS family of munitions, the guided MLRS unitary was seen as the optimum solution to expand the current target set of GMLRS, giving a maneuver commander a precision capability while greatly limiting collateral damage in restrictive terrain and urban areas.

The guided MLRS unitary SDD contract included 86 rockets, 71 of which are flight articles, with the balance supporting test and other activities. The program will continue through 2007. But America’s warfighters could not wait for that program’s evolution.

“In January 2005 an urgent need statement (UNS) request was approved at the Department of the Army for a precision-guided munition with limited collateral damage,” said Rick Vallario, director of Business Development for Tactical Missiles at Lockheed Martin.

“At the time, we were in the SDD phase for guided MLRS unitary,” he continued. “The Army came to us and asked, ‘Can we do some follow-on tests of the current variant that you’re using, get a limited safety release and get a number produced and sent to theater?’ So, last year we went ahead and in May 2005 we delivered the first 72 to the government. By the end of that year we had produced approximately 486 that were sent to theater.”

In August 2005, Lockheed Martin announced that fire units of Battery Bravo, 3rd Battalion, 13th Artillery Regiment, had recently conducted the first in-theater tests of the new rockets in Iraq. According to the announcement, “Seven GMLRS unitary rockets were rippled fired from a 65-kilometer distance and reached the target with extreme accuracy. Test objectives included demonstrating the GMLRS unitary rocket precision capability and also demonstrated its lethality while limiting collateral damage. The tests served as a determination of employability of the GMLRS rocket in the global war on terrorism.”

The new systems soon saw combat employment in theater. The capabilities of the new system led to a second urgency of need statement, at the beginning of 2006, for approximately 500 additional guided MLRS unitary rockets.

According to Vallario, the first 28 pods of these rockets (six rockets per pod) were delivered to the Army in September 2006, with the remainder of the rockets covered under the second UNS, to be delivered throughout the rest of the year.

Vallario clarified that the guided MLRS unitary rockets now being delivered to the military are not the same as the objective configuration that will emerge from the XM31 SDD program.

As an example, he pointed to the fact that the Phase I rockets now being fielded have a dual-mode fuze option of either point-detonating or delay. In contrast, the Phase II objective XM31 rockets that will emerge from SDD will feature a tri-mode fuze, with point-detonating, delay and airburst options. In addition, the objective design will incorporate certain insensitive munitions (IM) upgrades to provide the soldier added safety in hostile environments.

“The system that’s over there right now is just called guided MLRS unitary,” he added. “The objective system is called XM31.”

In parallel with the urgent need deliveries and SDD testing, Lockheed Martin is also working with industry partners Aerojet and MBDA to develop and test a new enhanced blast warhead (EBW) design for the guided MLRS unitary munition.
Following industry-funded flight testing of the EBW earlier this year, Al Duchesne, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control’s director of MLRS Rocket Programs noted, “Because of its over-pressurization design, the enhanced blast warhead variant of the GMLRS unitary will devastate enclosed structures with minimum collateral damage. GMLRS unitary has quickly been established as the weapon of choice for deep-strike precision fire in urban and mountainous environments.”

Vallario added, “The enhanced blast warhead is an increased capability over the one we are currently developing. What we’re doing now is adding more capabilities. The objective, or the XM31 warhead, is designed and developed to do a specific mission in a requirements document, but the enhanced blast warhead gives you additional capabilities.”

In terms of the significance of the guided MLRS unitary munition to today’s warfighter, he summarized, “First, it’s a combat multiplier. It’s a combat proven system used by joint forces—even though the Army owns it, the Marine Corps is using it. And it’s a system being used where precision, accuracy, lethality and responsiveness are critical for accomplishment of missions within the global war on terrorism.”