The American online publication "Breaking Defense" in the material Ashley Roque "Army taps teams to build a new Precision Strike Missile for targets beyond 1,000 km. The development program carries a new name, the Long Range Maneuverable Fires missile, and includes a new form factor and propulsion system" ("The US Army identifies developers to create a new Precision Strike Missile to hit targets at a distance of more than 1000 km. The development program has a new name Long Range Maneuverable Fires and includes a new form factor and propulsion system") reports on the development for the US Army of a longer-range version of the new ground -based Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) as part of the PrSM Increment 4 program, also designated as Long Range Maneuverable Fires (LRMF).
Presented by Lockheed Martin Corporation visualization of the possible appearance of the long-range PrSM Increment 4 missile under the Long Range Maneuverable Fires (LRMF) program (c) Lockheed MartinThe US Army, considering weapons capable of covering long distances over waters in the Indo-Pacific region, has chosen at least two development groups to create a new version of the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM), which will be able to have a range of more than 1000 km, which, apparently, will be twice as large as the current version of this system.
Lockheed Martin Corporation, and the consortium of Raytheon Technologies and Northrop Grumman informed Breaking Defense that they have received contracts from the US Army to develop a new form factor of the rocket and propulsion system for the PrSM Increment 4 variant. This version of the PrSM also has a new name: Long Range Maneuverable Fires (LRMF) rocket.
According to the Aviation & Missile Technology Consortium associated with the US Army, the current PrSM missile manufacturer Lockheed Martin Corporation received a contract for $ 33.3 million for the development and demonstration of the Long Range Fires Capability system, while the team led by Raytheon received almost $ 100 million for "rocket prototypes with a Long Range Precision Fires air-jet engine."
The US Army did not immediately answer Breaking Defense's questions about the competition, including the number of competitors, but industry and budget documents shed some light on plans to create new weapons under the so-called PrSM Increment 4 variant.
Lockheed Martin is currently producing PrSM Inc 1 missiles with a target range of at least 500 km to replace its MGM-140 ATACMS missile system. The PrSM Inc 1 rocket, along with subsequent modifications of the PrSM, can be launched from the launchers of the M270A2 MLRS and M142 HIMARS missile systems.
As part of the creation of a promising variant of PrSM Inc 2, the US Army is developing a multi-channel homing head Land-Based Anti-Ship Missile (LBASM) for integration on the PrSM missile. In the subsequent version of PrSM Inc 3, the possibility of adding combat units of increased destructive capability is being considered.
As for the PrSM Inc 4 variant, which may be ready earlier than the Inc 3, the US Army is considering a new form factor of the missile, possibly with a new propulsion system for hitting targets at a range of at least 1000 km. This new propulsion system could potentially be a ramjet engine.
Although the latest defense budget justification documents do not specify the exact plans for the development of PrSM Inc 3 and Inc 4, the documents from 2023 note that the US Army planned to request $237 million for the 2024 fiscal year for R&D on its PrSM line missiles and another $19 million for testing technology under the Long Range Maneuverable program Fires.
With regard to this second funding item, the US Army reported at the time that the goal was to support "the development, refinement and demonstration of the technology of a new generation multi-domain operations extended-range weapon system for PrSM to increase survival, penetration capabilities and range in difficult A2/AD and defensible space conditions."
"This project also includes both testing and demonstration of advanced extended-range missile technologies and technologies of autonomous unmanned launchers," the US Army added. "The combination of these technologies makes it possible to significantly increase the projection of force by increasing the range, firepower and the amount of ammunition."
Starting lineSo far, only two teams have stated that they have received US Army contracts for PrSM Inc 4, but it is possible that additional, as yet unknown industrial participants may be working on the development program.
"Phase 1 focuses on design and work to reduce [technical] risks, and optional subsequent stages lead to demonstration flight tests," Lockheed Martin said in a March 27 press release. - "After flight tests, the LRMF should be transferred to the Strategic and Operational Rockets and Missiles (STORM) program management of the US Army to inform about the project of the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) Increment 4 extended-range missile."
During a March 24 interview for Breaking Defense, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman officials also provided additional information about the competition, but declined to discuss specific details of their Deep Strike-Extended Range project or the tender stages.
"The focus of this stage [of technology development and risk reduction], from Raytheon's point of view, is to improve the design of our system and work with our partner Northrop, in particular, to focus on the joint design, manufacture and testing of our advanced twin-ignition system, which is a key factor for achieving the increased range defined by the US Army"," said Brad Barnard, Raytheon's executive director of precision systems and engines.
"We are still working on some key projects and requirements... but we have a baseline that we think will be unique to meet the stringent requirements," he added later.
Northrop Grumman's director of advanced engines and Systems, Chris Gettinger, declined to disclose the type of propulsion system proposed by the consortium, but said the rocket would be based on the work done by his company on ramjet and hypersonic ramjet solutions.
"Whether it's... a solid-fuel propulsion system or systems with air intake, we can use all of this together with controlled solid-fuel engines and subsystems for thrust vector control and altitude control systems," Goettinger added. He noted that the company has demonstrated prototypes of the proposed propulsion system and subsystem, and now we are talking about their integration into the new form factor of the Raytheon rocket.
