Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy with an M142 HIMARS launcher in the background. Photo: ADF.
The Australian Army has conducted the first launch of a new precision strike missile (PrSM) outside of the US during the multinational Exercise Talisman Sabre.
The launch of the missile was conducted at the Mount Bundey Training Area in the Northern Territory from an M142 HIMARS rocket artillery system launcher by the Army’s 14th Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery.
The HIMARS can carry two PrSMs or six smaller and shorter-range GLMRS rounds, and is used to strike targets at between 60 and 500 km using the rockets.
The launch of the PrSM Increment 1 round comes just a month after Australia expanded its cooperative development agreement on the PrSM with the US Army.
The Increment 1 version has recently been fielded by the US Army as a replacement for the older ATACMS missile, while there are three additional increments under development that will add additional range and an ability to strike moving maritime targets.
Increment 2 is also known as the land based anti-ship missile (LBASM) and features a multimode seeker and longer range of 500 km for the maritime strike mission, and it is this capability which is of interest to Australia. It is expected Increment 2 will enter service from 2028.
Increments 3 and 4 will focus on upgrades to Increments 1 and 2, and will offer a wider range of warheads possibly capable of breaching armoured or buried targets, and additional boosts to the PrSM’s range out to 1000 km.
The test firing was attended by Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy and US Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll. The government said the test was conducted two years ahead of schedule, and followed the delivery of the first PrSM a year ahead of schedule and the first HIMARS two months ahead of schedule.
It said negotiations were expected to soon commence on options for the future domestic manufacture and maintenance of PrSM in Australia undet the Sovereign Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance (GWEO) initiative.
Later versions of the PrSM will have ranges exceeding 1000 km. Photo: ADF.
Mr Conroy said the firing was an example of the government accelerating the ADF’s long-range strike capabilities.
“From delivering HIMARS ahead of schedule to delivering and testing PrSM ahead of schedule, the Albanese Government is modernising the Australian Army at speed,” he said.
“This successful launch is a significant milestone in the government’s plan to deliver a 25-fold increase to Army’s long-range strike capability.”
He said the launch at Mt Bundey was only the 16th test firing of the PrSM anywhere, and only the second one from a crewed platform.
“This takes the range of the Australian Army from 40 kilometres to 500 kilometres, on the way to 1000 kilometre range,” he said.
“Now, this could not have happened without the cooperation of the United States Government and in particular, the United States Army, and I want to thank [Secretary Driscoll] on behalf of a grateful nation for your help in this exercise.”
Secretary Driscoll said he was honoured to be at the test firing with his Australian friends, brothers and sisters.
“The production of the PrSM missile and the partnership with the Australians and the training that went into this event is a model for us as Americans on how we can project and partner with our allies to project strength throughout the world,” he said.
“As we are relooking [at] our strategy of how the United States Army continues to develop and expand and reinforce our strength around the world, and how we position ourselves, it’s tools like PrSM that allow us to partner with our allies and reach out and touch potential threats from places they will almost certainly not know that we exist.”
