A Strikemaster on display at September’s Land Forces 2024 exposition in Melbourne. Photo: Andrew McLaughlin.
The Federal Government has progressed the Australian Army’s Project LAND 4100 Phase 2 land-based maritime strike (LBMS) requirement, announcing a shortlist of two contenders.
Under consideration are the M142 HIMARS truck-mounted rocket launcher paired with the new Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) Increment 2, and the Australian-developed Strikemaster system, which has a pair of Naval Strike Missiles (NSMs) mounted on a Thales Australia Bushmaster chassis.
Australia already has 42 HIMARS systems on order under its Project LAND 8113 Long Range Fires requirement, but has so far only committed to arm them with 75-125 km-range Guided Multiple Long-Range Rocket System (GMLRS), or the 150 km-range M57 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS).
The GMLRS and ATACMS are designed to attack land targets such as artillery positions, buildings, airfields and other infrastructure.
The 500 km-range PrSM Increment 1 is a ballistic missile currently entering US Army service as an ATACMS replacement.
However, development of advanced versions of the PrSM is ongoing under a cooperative agreement with Australia.
Increment 2 – also known as the Land-Based Anti-Ship Missile (LBASM) – will add a multi-mode seeker to the missile, allowing it to attack moving targets such as a ship at sea, and it is this version the Commonwealth is considering for LAND 4100-2.
The first successful operational test of the PrSM Increment 2 occurred in an exercise in the Western Pacific in June 2024, with the missile striking a ship target as part of a sink exercise (SINKEX).
The follow-on Increment 3 will add new types of warheads to the PrSM, while Increment 4 is aiming to extend the missile’s range out to 1000 km through the use of new aerodynamics and propulsion technologies.
While HIMARS vehicles and launchers are imported from the US, plans are currently underway to manufacture GMLRS missiles, and possibly PrSM missiles, in Australia in the future.
Concept art of a PrSM round being fired from a HIMARS launcher. Image: Lockheed Martin.
In the meantime, the Strikemaster concept came together through a joint effort by Thales Australia and Kongsberg Australia, the manufacturer of the NSM.
The NSM is already in service in the Royal Australian Navy, having conducted its first successful test firing off Hawaii in July.
On 6 December – just four months after the announcement – Kongsberg Australia turned the first sod for its new facility at Williamtown, near Newcastle, to manufacture NSMs and the JSM air-launched derivative in Australia from 2026.
The NSM has a range of about 150 km when vehicle-launched, and flies at low altitude to the target area before popping up to attack from above. Its multi-mode seeker allows it to select its target from a library of ship silhouettes, ensuring it doesn’t attack commercial or non-combative vessels.
The Bushmaster is manufactured in Bendigo in Victoria, and more than 1100 of the armoured vehicles have been built for the Australian Army and other nations such as Indonesia, New Zealand, the UK, the Netherlands, and Ukraine.
Defence Minister Richard Marles said the government’s National Defence Strategy recognised that land‑based maritime strike was a critical element in achieving a strategy of denial.
“Today’s announcement represents another historic milestone, which will see our army equipped with this capability for the first time in history,” he said.
Minister for Defence Industry and Capability Delivery Pat Conroy added: “With today’s announcement, we are accelerating the delivery of a land-based maritime strike capability that will bolster our ADF and at the same time provide a path to grow the Australian defence industry.”
The PrSM and NSM have very different operational profiles – each of which has its merits. With core elements of both systems already in Australian Defence Force (ADF) service, and with both having large or growing input from Australian industry, it may not be out of the question that both systems could be selected to fulfil the LAND 4100-2 requirement.
