Lockheed Martin's Modernized TACMS Missile Achieves Second Flight Test

Lockheed Martin has performed a second flight test of modernized Tactical Missile System (TACMS) missile at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

The test follows the first flight of a modernized TACMS in late October. Five more flight tests are planned in coming months for the modernized TACMS program, the company announced Monday.

Launched from a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launcher at a target approximately 85 kilometers away, the modernized TACMS precisely engaged and destroyed the target, demonstrating the missile's Proximity Sensor Height of Burst enhancement.

An additional feature of the new modernized TACMS is the ability to deliver increased lethality against imprecisely located targets. "This second test in a row further validates the capability enhancements we are making to the TACMS round," said Scott Greene, vice president of Precision Fires/Combat Maneuver Systems at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control.

As part of the US Army's TACMS Service Life Extension Program inventory refurbishment effort, the modernized missile includes new guidance electronics and added capability to defeat area targets without leaving behind unexploded ordnance.

The TACMS modernization process disassembles and demilitarizes TACMS Block 1 and 1A submunition warheads, which do not comply with the Convention on Cluster Munitions of 2008, replacing them with new unitary warheads. The modernization process also resets the missile's 10+ year shelf life.

In December of 2014, Lockheed Martin and the US Army signed a $74 million contract to take existing TACMS missiles from inventory and modernize them. The missile was produced at Lockheed Martin's Precision Fires Production Center of Excellence in Camden, Arkansas.

The TACMS platform provides flexibility to quickly integrate novel payloads and new capabilities, meeting future demands now as required by the warfighter.

TACMS missiles can be fired from the entire family of MLRS launchers.