State Department approves HIMARS sale for Poland

Nov. 30 (UPI) -- The U.S. State Department has approved a possible sale to Poland of 20 M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System mobile rocket launchers at an estimated cost of $665 million.

The potential sale also includes guided rockets, 30 Army Tactical Missile System long-range battlefield missiles, data systems, support vehicles and training equipment

The State Department says the sale will support a NATO ally and U.S. security interests, will be easily integrated into the Polish and will not seriously affect the balance of power in Eastern Europe. The deal falls under Foreign Military Sales.

HIMARS is a wheeled Multiple Launch Rocket System that can fire up to six rockets at a time. The rockets depending on the model can carry submunitions for area suppression or a single unitary blast warhead.

It also uses the Army Tactical Missile System, a long-range battlefield missile with a range of over 190 miles. Previous versions were capable of carrying submunitions, but current models use a single blast-fragmentation warhead due to international concern over the effects of unexploded cluster munitions on civilian populations.

HIMARS has seen use in the first Gulf War, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. Along with the M270 Multiple Rocket Launch System, it is the primary surface-to-surface battlefield rocket and missile system employed by the U.S. military. The HIMARS, M270 and the ATACMS missile have been heavily exported to allied nations across the world.