Washington: The US Army is slated to have two new missile systems in soldiers’ hands in 2024. The two missiles seek to solve a couple of distance problems for the service under its wider long-range precision fires modernisation program.
The Precision Strike Missile, or PrSM, will cover ranges up to an estimated 300 miles and replace the legacy Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, which can reach a maximum distance of about 190 miles. The Army is seeking to more than double that distance through an effort launched in February 2023 with Raytheon that will be part of the system’s Increment for development.
To give the Army the speed and reach that its leaders see as key to facing peer adversaries such as the Russian and Chinese militaries, the service is leaning on the development of an entirely new technology in the Long Range Hypersonic Weapon. When fielded, the hypersonic missile is expected to reach ranges of upto 1,725 miles, according to a 2023 Congressional Research Service report.
The PrSM completed a successful production qualification test, launching from a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System on November 13 at White Sands Missile Range. That test measured how well the projectile performed in its predicted flight trajectory, lethality, near-vertical engagement angle and height of burst, according to an Army release. Passing that test means the new missile has reached the status of “early operational capability,” according to the release. That means soldiers can start working with the system in 2024.
The hypersonic weapon development effort has proved more difficult. To reach hypersonic speeds, a key to avoiding enemy detection and air defence systems, the missiles must fly faster than Mach 5 — or more than 3,836 miles per hour — and be able to manoeuvre at various altitudes, said a media report.
Developers delivered the first hypersonic weapon prototype to 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, 17th Field Artillery Brigade, I Corps at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington in fiscal year 2021. That early increment included the battery operations centre, four transporter-erector launchers and modified trucks and trailers to transport the weapon.
The development of the Common Hypersonic Glide Body, or C-HGB, which includes the weapon’s warhead, guidance system, cabling and thermal protection shield, has hit snags following a cancelled test in September. The delay means the system will likely field in 2024, instead of its originally planned late 2023 fielding, officials said.
