HIMARS - multiple launch rocket system with increased mobility. It is designed to attack artillery concentration areas, air defense systems, trucks, technical support units, armored personnel carriers and other objects. The second function of the HIMARS system is to support its troops and means of support. Let's find out what else this system, symbolizing modern American weapons, can boast of!
Prerequisites for creating
The main reason why the U.S. armed forces thought about creating such a complex was the need to equip naval units, paratroopers and quick reaction forces with mobile launchers, which could be deployed through the air to almost anywhere.
In the mid-80s, Loral Vought Systems began exploring the prospect of developing a six-barrel TPK (transport and launch container) for 227-caliber missiles and mounting them on tracked and wheeled chassis. The program for creating an artillery system of high mobility also aimed at the prospect of air transportation of the system using a military aircraft S-130. Operation Just Cause, which took place in Panama at the end of 1989, clearly illustrated the need for HIMARS.
Development
In the summer of 1990, the U.S. Army began to formulate requirements for a lightweight jet system based on a truck chassis. The demonstration of the prototype took place in September 1994. And a year and a half later, the US command of guided weapons concluded a contract with the companies Fire Control and Lockheed Martin Missiles for the assembly of HIMARS MLRS vehicles. The contract value amounted to 22.3 billion dollars.
According to the terms of the contract, the company’s specialists assembled four experimental combat vehicles. Three of them were handed over to the customer for two-year tests, and the fourth remained for the developer to conduct tests. In the summer of 1998, experts of the US Army successfully conducted ATACMS missile tests on the basis of a prototype of the HIMARS MLRS.
Qualification Tests
Serious tests of the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (full name of the system) were passed in 2003. They included firing such shells: the M26 unguided missile, the MGM-140B and MGM-164A missiles of the ATACMS complex, as well as the guided projectiles of the MLRS system. To this day, there is no reliable information regarding whether one chassis can fit TPKs of different calibers. In January 2004, the manufacturer fully completed the testing of a prototype of the machine. As a result, it was confirmed that HIMARS is a multiple launch rocket system with decent tactical-combat and operational characteristics. In one of the tests, the military recreated the theater of operations as much as possible. They delivered the prototype to the test site using the S-130 transport aircraft. In less than five minutes, the car was unloaded. Then she took up a firing position and received a combat mission via a digital channel. As a result, a salvo of six missiles was fired. Representatives of the MLRS, ground forces, and marines participated in the joint exercises / trials.
In the summer of 2005, the HIMARS missile system began to enter service. The first unit to have the HIMARS system in its arsenal was the 27th Field Artillery Regiment of America’s 18th Airborne Corps.
Rocket R44
In the 2000s, Lockheed Martin developed a prototype P44 missile, which was designed to accurately hit moving targets from long distances, as part of the MLRS and HIMARS combat systems. To launch it, they developed a special container that holds 10 missiles. The prototype could work both using GPS, in auxiliary inertial guidance, to hit stationary targets, and with a homing head for moving targets. In the second case, the rocket was equipped with the principle of a single multi-purpose rocket JCM.
The prototype had a homing head operating in three modes:
- Doppler radar. Works in the millimeter wave range. It can be used in any weather conditions. Striking moving targets.
- Cooled infrared. Defines and classifies goals.
- Semi-active laser. It strikes targets with additional target designation.
As a starting accelerator, a 177-mm model was chosen, which is notable for its low price and the possibility of further refinement. The design of the prototype used an enlarged warhead from a Hellfire II rocket or a cumulative warhead, characterized by the presence of a forming device. In the long run, it was assumed that the possibility of increasing the length and mass of the rocket.
In March 2007, information appeared that the rocket had successfully passed tests in a wind tunnel, static burning of a rocket engine, and flight tests at the White Sands training ground in New Mexico. A month later, it became known that the second stage of the tests was no less successful. During a series of tests of prototypes of the P44 rocket, the HIMARS combat vehicle was used, for which these missiles are intended.
Machine modernization
At the end of 2006, Lockheed Martin entered into a 1.8 million contract with the US Army to develop an advanced cabin for combat vehicles. The upgrade focused mainly on improving the safety level for the driver. According to the contract, the modernization work was supposed to be completed no later than September 30, 2010. The cabins received an additional reservation that protects against bullets, fragmentation shells and mines.
In March 2008, Lockheed Martin announced the pilot launch of four guided missiles, which used the new universal fire control system. Before concluding a contract for the initial small-scale production, at the Texas and Arkansas plants, the company had to build six prototypes for testing by the US Army.
In mid-2008, while firing from the HIMARS multiple launch rocket system, GMLRS rockets set a record for a flight range of 85 km. In November of the following year, Lockheed Martin announced that it had been possible to increase this figure in recent trials to 92 km. Information on the use of guided missiles is not widely available. It is also not clear whether they solved the problem of multiple launch rockets, in which each of them identifies its target, or whether the use of such missiles involves conventional, non-volley fire.
In March 2009, at the same White Sands training ground, tests were conducted during which a HIMARS system combat vehicle launched 2 guided anti-aircraft missiles called SLARAAM. During the exercises, operational tests of updated missiles and the assembly of rail guides for missiles in a container were carried out. The latter was redone from the transport and launch container for ATACMS missiles. When launching anti-aircraft shells, the HIMARS fire control system was used, the software of which was somewhat modified. When the fire control system is finalized and transportation containers for SLAMRAAM missiles are created, they will go into service. The US Armed Forces command plans that in the future, HIMARS systems with anti-aircraft guided missiles will be used in a distributed network-centric air defense system.
Baptism of fire HIMARS
The multiple launch rocket system that we are considering today has been baptized in the framework of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Its last combat use took place on February 14, 2010. During the NATO anti-terrorist operation in the Afghan town of Marge, 2 HIMARS shells deviated from the target and, having got into civilian construction, killed 12 civilians.
Prospects
In January 2011, Lockheed Martin received a contract to build 44 HIMARS systems, with a total value of just under $ 140 million. After fulfilling this order, in 2013, the number of military vehicles in service with the US Armed Forces amounted to 375. In 2015, their number increased to 480 units. Machines equipped with a volley fire system are supplied not only to the US Army but also to its allies - the UAE, Singapore and Jordan.
HIMARS System Specifications
The multiple launch rocket system includes:
- Fighting vehicle model M142.
- Transport and loading machine.
- Missiles (guided and unguided).
- Fire controls.
The car
The combat vehicle is an upgraded version of the 5-ton truck Stewart & Stevenson with a 6x6 wheel arrangement. The Caterpillar diesel, 6.6-liter, 6-cylinder gas turbine engine develops 290 horsepower. The fuel tank has a capacity of 56 gallons. Cruising range is 480 km. The engine works in tandem with an automatic (it didn’t seem to you, it was automatic) seven-speed transmission. The pendant has a parabolic shape with leaf springs. The ground clearance is 564 mm. The truck can storm water obstacles up to 900 mm deep. The crew consists of three people: the driver, gunner, commander. In extreme conditions, one person can cope with the task.
Rocket technology
Missile technology does not have a permanent package of guides. As guides, unified disposable TPKs from a machine of the MLRS system are used. The HIMARS launcher can fire any guided and unguided missiles of the MLRS system, as well as missiles of the MGM-140 and MGM-164 models of the ATACMS complex. When the last tactical missile is launched, the fired transport-launch containers are simply replaced by charged ones. TPK is charged and sealed in the factory. Standard TPKs weigh a little more than two tons and are 6 pipes made of fiberglass, which are fastened with an aluminum clip. To impart rotation to the projectile at a speed of 10-12 revolutions per minute, there are spiral skids inside the guides. A tactical missile is launched directly from a disposable container. In such TPK missile can be stored for at least 10 years, while maintaining its combat readiness.
Recharge and fire control
The mechanism for reloading (PZM) is made in the form of a retractable console equipped with an electric winch. The mechanism can be controlled both from the driver’s cab and through the remote control. The second option is especially convenient, as it is visually clear. To charge the TPK in the clip of the PZM, the latter is placed in a horizontal position, and its console extends. With the help of a crane, the container is lifted and installed in place. The winch is attached to the center of gravity of the container.
The fire control system, as well as the electronics and communication devices, are performed in the same way as the older BM MLRS. However, to date, a modernized version of the machine has been developed, the control panel of which has improved interfaces. The term interfaces in this context means operational units and elements.
Transport and loading machine
As for the transport and loading machine, it is a truck with an on-board crane and a trailer. Like a combat vehicle, it has a 6x6 wheel arrangement. A crane is located at the rear of the truck. With his help, the operator reloads transport and launch containers. The trailer is needed to transport additional TPK.
The combat vehicle can be transported in a transport aircraft S-130 Hercules. After unloading from it, it is fully operational in no more than 10 minutes. HIMARS-class rocketry is very mobile, therefore, having completed a combat mission, it quickly leaves the firing line. At the moment, an option is being developed for installing the artillery part of the HIMARS system on a modified car chassis with a carrying capacity of 7 tons.
Some more interesting characteristics:
- Machine dimensions: length - 6949, width - 2400, height - 3180 mm.
- Mass of the combat vehicle without shells: 13696 kg. With shells - about 16,000 kg. The chassis weighs 8273, and the module with a container - 2915 kg.
- The maximum speed of a charged car is 89 km / h. Without ammunition, the speed is 5 km / h more.
- The maximum slope that the machine can overcome is 60 degrees.
- The angle of horizontal fire is 280 degrees.
Russian analogues
Mobile rocket artillery is also in Russia. It is represented by the Tornado MLRS family. There are two types - "Grad" and "Tornado." The caliber of the Grad system is 122 mm. It consists of a modernized combat vehicle, an automated control system and unguided shells. We’ll say this, the younger version of Tornado.
MLRS "Smerch" is more similar to the American HIMARS system. The caliber of shells is already 300 mm, and the maximum range is 130 km. "Tornado" launches unguided and adjustable rockets. In the future, the possibility of increasing the flight range in the Tornado system is allowed. MLRS "Smerch" also consists of a modernized machine with an automatic guidance system.