Lockheed successfully tests multiple-launch rocket system

March 4 (UPI) -- Lockheed Martin recently ran a successful test of its next-generation Extended-Range Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

According to the contractor, during the test the ER GMLRS round was fired from the U.S. Army's High Mobility Artillery Rocket System launcher, also built by Lockheed Martin.

"Our new Extended-Range GMLRS significantly increases the range of the current system, offering the choice of munitions for longer distances and improving options with the same reliability and accuracy our customers have come to expect," Gaylia Campbell, vice president of Precision Fires and Combat Maneuver Systems at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, said in a press release.

"Our team is dedicated to conducting extensive developmental testing as part of our discipline to assure mission success for the U.S. Army with more flexibility for multi-domain operations," Campbell said.

GMLRS is an all-weather rocket designed for fast deployment and is fired from the Lockheed Martin HIMARS or M270 family of launchers.

Lockheed has produced more than 50,000 GMLRS rounds and is under contract to produce more than 9,000 new GMLRS unitary and alternative-warhead rockets for the Army and for international customers, according to the company.

In February 2020 Lockheed was awarded a $1.1 billion contract to provide GMLRS for Romania and South Korea through the Foreign Military Sales program.

In April 2018, the contractor received $828.7 million to provide the missile systems to Finland, South Korea and Romania.