U.S. Army’s Precision Strike Missile Completes its Longest Ever Flight

The U.S. Army’s Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) has completed its longest flight to date, exceeding maximum threshold, at Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB), California, on Wednesday.

This marks the fifth consecutive successful flight test for the missile.

PrSM will replace the Army Tactical Missile System. It is expected to be fielded in 2023.

Lockheed Martin did not disclose the distance the PrSM traveled during its test. It had flown “more than” 400 km in May.

America withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty that prevented the development of missiles with ranges between 499 -5,000 km in 2019. The goal of the recent flight test was reportedly to see how far the PrSM can travel beyond its previous set requirement of 499km.

Firing from a High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) launcher, the PrSM flew an extended range mission over the Pacific Ocean.

The success comes on the heels of two U.S. Army contract awards issued in September for Early Operational Capability (EOC) production and Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) advancing the missile to the next phase of the PrSM program.

The flight is the second of three demonstrations taking place this year as part of the Enhanced Technology Maturation and Risk Reduction (ETMRR) phase of the development program. The next flight is scheduled this fall as part of the U.S. Army’s Project Convergence 21.