Lockheed awarded $1.1B for rocket sales to Poland, Bahrain, Romania

March 28 (UPI) -- Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $1.14 billion contract for Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems for Poland, Bahrain and Romania.

The foreign military sales contract, announced Wednesday by the Department of Defense, covers full rate production for the GMLRS surface-to-surface systems for the three nations.

Work on the contract is expected to run through Aug. 31, 2021, and will be performed in Grand Prairie, Texas.

The purchase is the latest missile system procurement for Romania, which in 2017, as part of a $1.25 billion agreement with Lockheed Martin, agreed to acquire for a range of missile and rocket systems, including 54 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and 81 GMLRS systems.

Poland, which has reached agreement on several missile systems in the last two years, including one for the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System earlier this month, also was approved for purchase of the GMLRS in November 2017.

The surface-to-surface GMLRS system is used to attack, neutralize, suppress and destroy targets with indirect precision from 9 miles to 43-plus miles.

Compared with ballistic rockets, they have have greater accuracy with a higher probability of success and a reduced logistics footprint, according to the U.S. Army. The reliability threshold is 92 percent and the reliability objective is 95 percent.

GMLRS can be used to destroy enemy bunkers, troop locations, armored vehicles, equipment or other pertinent high-value targets.

The system's 155-inch rockets are employed with the M270A1 Multiple Launch Rocket System and M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System launchers.

Lockheed Martin completed system development and demonstration tests in 2002 and entered low-rate initial production in 2003 and deployed in Iraq in 2005, according to Army Technology.

The company has produced more than 25,000 GMLRS through 2016 for the United States and NATO allies.

The "Alternative Warhead" adheres to a 2008 international agreement banning so-called "cluster munitions," which disperse a number of small explosive "bomblets" over a target area, according to the National Interest.