U.S. Army selects five companies for PrSM missile prototypes — Breaking Defense

In the United States, the U.S. Army has selected five companies to create prototypes of the Precision Strike Missile Increment 4 (PrSM Inc 4). As Breaking Defense reports, Anduril, Castelion, Lockheed Martin, RTX and Mach Industries received agreements through the Other Transaction Authority mechanism.

Missile range

PrSM Increment 4 is intended to strike moving maritime and ground targets at a distance of at least 1,000 km. This is approximately twice the range of the baseline version of PrSM. The value of the agreements was not disclosed.

Each company must develop a missile prototype suitable for launch from the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS. Under an April solicitation from the Program Acquisition Executive Fires, the system must also have an open architecture. This will make it possible to integrate new hardware and software into the platform. The missile must also be capable of operating in the Indo-Pacific region in accordance with the provided operational scenario.

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Renewed competition

The U.S. Army resumed the competition for PrSM Increment 4 after publishing a new solicitation in April. In 2023, Lockheed Martin and a joint team of RTX and Northrop Grumman received contracts for the missile's initial development.

In June, Lockheed Martin said that during a test at one of L3Harris' facilities, its PrSM Increment 4 solution demonstrated the transition from a booster to a ramjet engine. According to the company, full-scale flight tests were planned to begin in the fall.

Two weeks before the announcement of the new prototypes, the U.S. Army awarded Lockheed Martin a $1.2 billion contract for the early operational capability of the PrSM Increment 2 system. This missile has a multi-mode seeker for engaging moving maritime targets and is designed for a range of up to 500 km in combat conditions.