Lockheed Martin successfully tested a second modernized Tactical Missile System (TACMS) missile in a flight at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.
The test follows closely behind the successful first flight of a modernized TACMS in late October. Five more flight tests are planned in coming months for the modernized TACMS program.
Launched from a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launcher at a target approximately 85 kilometers away, the modernized TACMS precisely engaged and destroyed the target, demonstrating the missile’s Proximity Sensor Height of Burst enhancement. An additional feature of the new modernized TACMS is the ability to deliver increased lethality against imprecisely located targets.
“This second successful test in a row further validates the capability enhancements we are making to the TACMS round. We are absolutely confident that when called upon, these modernized TACMS will provide an unmatched level of precision and lethality to our warfighters,” said Scott Greene, Vice President of Precision Fires/Combat Maneuver Systems at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control.
As part of the U.S. Army’s TACMS Service Life Extension Program inventory refurbishment effort, the modernized missile includes new state-of-the-art guidance electronics and added capability to defeat area targets without leaving behind unexploded ordnance.
The TACMS modernization process disassembles and demilitarizes TACMS Block 1 and 1A submunition warheads, which do not comply with the Convention on Cluster Munitions of 2008, replacing them with new unitary warheads. The modernization process also resets the missile’s 10+ year shelf life.
In December of 2014, Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Army signed a $74 million contract to take existing TACMS missiles from inventory and modernize them. The missile was produced at Lockheed Martin’s Precision Fires Production Center of Excellence in Camden, Arkansas.
The TACMS platform provides flexibility to quickly integrate novel payloads and new capabilities, meeting future demands now as required by the warfighter.
With unsurpassed performance and an unwavering commitment to production excellence, TACMS is the only long-range tactical surface-to-surface missile ever employed by the U.S. Army in combat. TACMS missiles can be fired from the entire family of MLRS launchers.
Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 98,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.
