December 5, 2024: The U.S. Marine Corps recently introduced a quad launcher version of the M142 HIMARs (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) guided rocket mounted on a 25 ton 10x10 MKR18 Logistics Vehicle System Replacement (LVSR) truck. With four HIMARS pods, the MKR18 vehicle packs a lot more fire power into one vehicle that can be put ashore by U.S. Navy amphibious ships.

HIMARS is a cheaper and lighter version of the original MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket System). HIMARS is a truck mounted launcher, with each vehicle carrying one pod, instead of two in the earlier tracked MLRS. The 12 ton truck can fit into a C-130 transport, unlike the 22 ton tracked MLRS vehicle. Each pod carries six 208 kg GMLRS (guided multiple launch rocket system) missiles, one 1.7 ton ATACMS or two 900 kg PrSM (Precision Strike) missiles.

Each HIMARS pod carries six rockets. The recently introduced GMLRS-ER has a range of 135 kilometers, making the ship-based version even more useful because it can support troops even farther inland. The new GMLRS has already been successfully tested at ranges up to 110 kilometers. This TC-GMLRS (Tail Controlled Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System) rocket is the same size as the current GMLRS rocket.

HIMARS entered service in 2005 and was sent to Iraq in 2007, Afghanistan in 2010, Syria in 2017 and Ukraine in 2022. In Iraq U.S. Special Forces were one of the first to receive HIMARS in order to be able to strike Islamic terrorist targets quickly and accurately as soon as they were discovered.

By 2024 over 600 HIMARS were in service with the U.S. and six export customers. Nine other nations have ordered HIMARS but have not received any systems yet. Annual production of HIMARS is 60 vehicles.

Currently, the most active GLMRS user is Ukraine, which uses over 20 HIMARS vehicles and has fired over 12,000 GMLRS rockets so far. GMLRS, used in conjunction with reconnaissance UAVs like Predator, gives an army the ability to call in its own airstrikes day or night and in any weather.

In 2024 Ukraine began receiving the larger GPS guided ATACMS missile with a range of 165 or 300 kilometers. HIMARS vehicles can only carry one Army Tactical Missile System missile, also known as ATACMS.

GMLRS has a range of 80 kilometers and the ability to land within meters of its intended target at any range. This is because its GPS, plus a less accurate backup inertial guidance system, has the ability to reliably hit its intended target. The failure rate of GMLRS is less than one percent. Most users buy the rockets equipped with an 82 kg high explosive warhead. The U.S. Army has purchased about 200,000 GMLRS rockets, and this weapon has been used with great success in Iraq, Afghanistan and Ukraine. The guided rocket is, obviously, much more effective than the older, unguided, version and has replaced it.

Only 3,700 of the larger and longer range ATACMS missiles were built by 1991 when production stopped. Over 600 have been fired in combat. ATACMS comes with two warhead options. One version of the warhead contains 950 anti-personnel bomblets, each the size of a baseball. With this warhead ATACMS has a range of 165 kilometers. A lighter warhead with only 300 bomblets has a range of 300 kilometers. GLMRS can use a warhead containing 404 of these bomblets. Most GLMRS are armed with the high explosive warhead.

ATACMS is being replaced by the 900 kg PrSM (Precision Strike missile). PrSM has a range of 500 kilometers and is accurate as GMLRS or ATACMS. HIMARS can carry two PrSMs. This missile was declared operational in 2024 and some showed up in Ukraine shortly after that. The U.S. wanted to see how PrSM performs in combat. Use in Ukraine demonstrated it was an effective longer range GMLRS.

A Norwegian firm developed the NASAMS/Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System. American defense firms manufacture many NASAMS components but it was Kongsberg that put them all together in an unexpected way. The United States is a customer, and still uses some of the original NASAMS to guard key sites in Washington DC.

Each NASAMS 2 battery consists of 12 launcher vehicles, each with six missiles. There are eight radar vehicles, one fire control center, and one tactical control vehicle. NASAMS often uses the American AMRAMM radar-guided air-to-air missiles but fired from a six-missile container instead of an aircraft. This ground-based AMRAAM weighs 159 kg, has a range of 30 kilometers and its radar can see out 50-70 kilometers. NASAMs can hit targets as high as 21 kilometers. What makes AMRAMM effective as a SAM (surface-to-air missile) is the capabilities of its guidance system, which is about two thirds of the $400,000 missile's cost. This ground-launched AMRAAM can also take down cruise missiles.

Kongsberg believed that the combat proven AMRAAM used by NASAMS was a good long term choice for air defense because the United States is constantly updating the missile. Kongsberg developed NASAMS in the early 1990s, deployed the first missiles and radars in 1995, and the original NASAMS entered service in 1998. Norway pioneered the use of AMRAAM as a surface-to-air missile and other systems have been developed using AMRAAM. But the Kongsberg version is seen as the best of the lot. Norway has six NASAMS batteries for its own defense. Spain, Holland, Finland, Chile, and the United States also use NASAMS. Finland Norway, Ukraine, and Lithuania, all bordering Russia, have decided that NASAMS is a cost-effective defense against Russian warplanes and cruise missiles. Ukraine has used NASAMS to shoot down hundreds of cruise missiles, drones and aircraft.