The war in Ukraine demonstrated the high effectiveness of long-range, high-precision rocket artillery on the battlefield. After Lockheed Martin's M142 HIMARS in the hands of the Armed Forces showed high results in destroying russian headquarters, equipment storage bases and warehouses with ammunition, direct weapons and military equipment and many other targets, Europe began not only to purchase these systems, but also to think on creating their own.
This is reported by Defense News with reference to Howard Bromberg, vice president and deputy for strategy and business development at Lockheed Martin’s air and missile defense business line.
Read more: Germany Will Transfer 45 More Gepard SPAAGs to Ukraine By the End of 2023 to Strengthen Its Air Defense
In particular, two companies, the American Lockheed Martin and the German Rheinmetall, at the request of Germany, plan to create a new multiple launch rocket system. For this, the base of the HIMARS, as system that is already well-known in the whole world, will be used - the memorandum of understanding between the companies was signed back in April 2023.
Currently, it is known about the new American-German development that it will be a wheeled system called GMARS. It should replace the already outdated MARS II MLRS in the German army (Germany has 34 units of these multiple launch rocket system, five more vehicles were previously transferred to Ukraine).
The new MLRS will be based on Rheinmetall’s HX 8x8 chassis in order to be unified with the German fleet of these vehicles, which is growing today. The new GMARS should be larger than the HIMARS, in particular in terms of length – 12 m versus 7 m.
At the same time, the launcher modules for this system, namely Launcher Loader Module kits, will be supplied by Lockheed Martin. Integration of these launch modules into the new German MLRS will be carried out directly in Germany.
According to reports, the GMARS missile system will have two Launch Pods in the launch module (as in MARS II), in particular, the photo presented by Lockheed Martin shows a variant with six missiles in each "package" - that is, a total of 12 rockets in one salvo. The number of crew members of the new GMARS will remain the same as in HIMARS - 3 people.
Regarding compatibility of munitions and logistics compared to HIMARS, GMARS will be unified with the US multiple launch rocket system by 80%. If the contract is awarded, Rheinmetall will be able to prepare the chassis of its own production for the integration of the launcher within a few months, while the first five GMARS multiple launch rocket systems for testing and acceptance into service will be delivered in 2025 - two years from now.
Defense Express reported, that the Armed Forces of Ukraine Showcased russian Tor-M2 Air Defense System's Ability to Intercept GMLRS Missiles (Video).
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Read more: HIMARS MLRS Made First Successful Strike on russian Occupy Troops in Ukraine (Video)
