United States works on replenishing stocks of range of different ammunition for its military after enormous expenditures in war against iran — country invests tens of billions of dollars in scaling production of various shell, rocket types and so on. Among everything, U.S. Army is interested in scaling ammunition for HIMARS/M270 missile systems — this involves GMLRS (Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System) rockets with unitary and alternative warheads, as well as extended range ER GMLRS version.
Defense News reports this. Overall U.S. Army published industry request for producing 133,014 GMLRS rockets over seven years — from 2028 through 2034, meaning average production rate should be 19,002 rockets annually or approximately 1,583 rockets monthly.
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Defense Express notes interesting question is whether such rates can be achieved in coming years.
Ultimately, as noted, U.S. Army emphasized manufacturer must present most effective and economically advantageous methods for achieving such production level.
This point will apparently be scrutinized very carefully given previous quite painful experience with same failed shell production plant creation for over half billion dollars, which from moment of opening in 2024 did not make single ammunition round.
Regarding production rates, two years ago directly Lockheed Martin, GMLRS rocket manufacturer, announced plans to reach 14,000 ammunition annually in 2025, and subsequently confirmed such capability.
So this involves 40% growth over several years, since in 2023 production rates of 10,000 rockets annually were reported.
So on paper it appears reaching average rate of 19,000 rockets after 2028 is quite probable scenario, and by 2034 even possible is production rate increase beyond this indicator. At same time in practice everything may be somewhat different, since even same expansion from 10 to 14 thousand occurred with timeline shifts.
How significant quantity of 133,000 rockets is — this involves 22,169 full HIMARS salvos (six rockets each) or 11,084 full salvos plus six rockets for M270 (12 rockets each). In annual terms (19,000 rockets) this is respectively 3,167 salvos and 1,583.5 salvos.
Ultimately worth noting replenishing GMLRS stocks may cost over $21 billion — considering averaged data on rocket cost of approximately $160,000 per unit. But real cost in coming years may be higher.
Previously Defense Express reported Ukraine-proven HIMARS and M270 are insufficient, so GMLRS rockets are proposed for launching from Kodiak containers.
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