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The US Army has awarded Lockheed Martin a US$756 million (AU$1.13 billion) contract to deliver additional capability for the nation’s ground-based hypersonic weapon system, the Long Range Hypersonic Weapon.
Under the new contract, Lockheed Martin will provide additional Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) battery equipment, systems and software engineering support, and logistics solutions to the US Army.
Lockheed Martin’s LRHW will introduce a new class of ultrafast and manoeuvrable long-range hypersonic missiles with the ability to launch from ground mobile platforms.
The LRHW weapon system is designed to launch the common hypersonic All Up Round (AUR), developed as part of the US Navy-managed Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) program, and will include the Army canister, a battery operations centre, and transporter erector launchers.
Steve Layne, vice-president of Hypersonic Strike Weapon Systems at Lockheed Martin, said, “With this contract, we will support the US Army to sustain the Long Range Hypersonic Weapon System currently in the hands of US soldiers, produce additional batteries for future fielding, and support flight testing.”
This contract signing comes following the delivery of the US Army’s first LRHW battery in October 2021 at Joint Base Lewis–McChord outside of Tacoma, Washington State, and included the delivery of ground equipment, including the battery operations centre and four transporter erector launchers.
Eric Scherff, vice-president for Hypersonic Strike Programs at Lockheed Martin Space, said at the time, “With this delivery, we’ve taken another leap in advancing this capability to support the US Army’s long-range precision fires vision in support of joint all domain operations.”
“Lockheed Martin is proud to continue our strong partnership with the US government for hypersonic strike capability,” Layne explained.
Lockheed Martin is a global defence technology company driving innovation and advancing scientific discovery.
Stephen Kuper
Steve has an extensive career across government, defence industry and advocacy, having previously worked for cabinet ministers at both Federal and State levels.
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