November8, 2006:
In the last year, U.S. Army artillery units in Iraq have fired over
120 GPS guided 227mm MLRS rockets (officially the " GMLRS Unitary
rocket"). When the GMLRS (Guided MLRS) first went into action, the troops
realized that this was a near-perfect artillery weapon. There have been no
reliability problems with the GMLRS, which has a range of 70 kilometers and,
because of the GPS guidance, it has the same accuracy at any range. Unguided
rockets become less accurate the farther they go. The GMLRS is designed to put
each rocket with in a 16 foot circle (the center of which is the GPS
coordinates the rocket is programmed to go for). In nearly all cases, the GMLRS
rocket appears to land less than ten feet from the aiming point.
What
makes the GMLRS most useful is not just its accuracy, which is about the same
as air force JDAM GPS guided smart bombs, but because the 200 pound GMLRS
warhead produces a smaller bang than the smallest JDAM (500 pounds). When it
comes to urban fighting, smaller is better. Less collateral damage, and your
troops can be closer to the target when the explosion occurs. In Iraq, the 200
pound GMLRS warhead is just the right size for your average Iraqi building. The
structure, and the bad guys within, are destroyed, and adjacent structures
suffer minimal, or no, damage. For that reason, even some Iraqi politicians
have come out in praise of the GMLRS.
In
order to get more GMLRS, all new MLRS production is being switched to GMLRS,
and a retrofit kit, that will turn unguided MLRS rockets into GMLRS, has been
introduced. The army believes that GMLRS will remain the most useful smart weapon,
even with the recent introduction of the hundred pound 155mm GPS guided
Excalibur artillery shell, and the U.S. Air Force's 250 pound JDAM (the SDB, or
small diameter bomb). Both of these weapons pack a smaller punch than the
GMLRS, and that may be a drawback in some situations. Ground troops are certain
that the GMLRS warhead is just right, at least in most cases. But the Excalibur
and SDB will get a workout anyway, and they will probably prove useful.