The High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launcher enters its seventh year of service with an enviable dependability record, and with its Camden, Arkansas, assembly line in full production. Lockheed Martin has delivered more than 400 HIMARS launchers, and the vehicles have achieved a 97-percent readiness rate on the battlefield.

In service since 2005, HIMARS brings Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) firepower to a wheeled chassis.  It carries a single six-pack of rockets or one Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missile, and can launch the entire MLRS family of munitions. It is C-130-transportable and can be deployed into areas previously inaccessible to heavier launchers.

“The HIMARS launcher is in high demand because it’s a combat proven system that provides Soldiers and Marines with a reliable, mobile platform to launch precision rockets and missiles,” said Scott Arnold, vice president of precision fires in Lockheed Martin’s Missiles and Fire Control business.  “We’re proud the U.S. Army, the U.S. Marine Corps and our international allies depend on HIMARS every day, and consider it an indispensable combat asset.”

HIMARS, which also is in service with a growing number of allied military forces worldwide, incorporates the self-loading, autonomous features that have made MLRS the premier rocket artillery system in the world.  The HIMARS fire-control system, electronics and communications units are interchangeable with the existing MLRS M270A1 launcher, and the crew and training are the same. The combat-proven HIMARS provides increased responsiveness, increased crew protection and increased effectiveness against time-critical targets while supporting conventional and special forces around the globe.

“It is absolutely essential that we provide our Soldiers, Marines and Special Operations forces with the most responsive, accurate and lethal long-range fires available,” said Lt. Col. Frederick Hughes, HIMARS product manager for the U.S. Army. “We simply owe our troops nothing short of the best.”