Australia touts first GMLRS artillery rocket assembled Down Under

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — The Australian army has test-fired its first-ever locally assembled Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System, or GMLRS, a key step toward eventually producing long-range strike weapons locally rather than importing them.

The milestone occurred at the Woomera Test Range in South Australia, with the rocket fired from an M142 HIMARS launcher.

It was the third live-fire event for an Australian Army HIMARS since the first units arrived in Australia in March 2025. The country has ordered 42 HIMARS launchers to date.

A Lockheed Martin production facility in Port Wakefield, South Australia, opened last December. The plan over the next several years is to increase the amount of locally built components, moving toward true domestic production rather than mere assembly of foreign-made parts.

“Australia is now the only country outside the United States to make the GMLRS missile, providing opportunities for Australian industry to enter into global supply chains,” said Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy.

He described this first firing as “a major milestone for Australia’s sovereign guided-weapons capability, demonstrating concrete progress in strengthening our national self-reliance and delivering a defense future made in Australia.”

GMLRS is the poster child for Australia’s Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance (GWEO) Enterprise, which seeks to give the country a sovereign production capability for various weapons.

A bilateral Australian-U.S. government agreement signed in March 2024 envisages production of up to 4,000 GMLRS rockets annually, ten times what Australia needs for itself. Therefore, exports have always formed part of Lockheed Martin’s thinking.

James Heading, Director and General Manager of Missiles and Fire Control at Lockheed Martin Australia, said: “We’re not just looking at Australian consumption, we’re looking at the global supply chain.”

Heading said GMLRS production will ramp up in 2026, as Lockheed Martin Australia moves beyond a risk-reduction activity and into stage one production.

He told Defense News his company is looking at the processes, procedures and software that will integrate Australian production directly into the U.S.-based Camden, Arkansas, facility so that it stays in lockstep with the American build cycle.

However, GMLRS is the shortest-range rocket available for HIMARS, and it hardly meets the criteria of Canberra’s vaunted goal of long-range “impactful projection.”

Lockheed Martin Australia told Defense News that the first logical progression would be manufacturing a 93-mile-range Extended Range variant.

“Importantly, Australian-made GMLRS missiles will provide a pathway for future long-range fires munitions – such as the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) and hypersonic weapons – to be locally manufactured,” reads a statement by the Australian Department of Defence.

Australia and the United States signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperative PrSM production in June 2025, covering sustainment and follow-on development. The pact offered options for Australian assembly of PrSM.

Canberra is investing approximately US$224 million over ten years to become a full PrSM cooperative partner, as well as US$106 million over the next five years to acquire an initial batch of missiles.

Gordon Arthur is an Asia correspondent for Defense News. After a 20-year stint working in Hong Kong, he now resides in New Zealand. He has attended military exercises and defense exhibitions in about 20 countries around the Asia-Pacific region.

新西兰基督城——澳大利亚陆军试射了其首个本地组装的制导多管火箭炮系统（GMLRS），这是最终实现本地生产远程打击武器而不是进口的关键一步。

这一里程碑事件发生在南澳大利亚的伍默拉试验场，火箭由M142 HIMARS火箭炮发射。

这是自2025年3月首批HIMARS火箭炮抵达澳大利亚以来，澳大利亚陆军进行的第三次实弹射击演习。迄今为止，澳大利亚已订购了42套HIMARS火箭炮系统。

洛克希德·马丁公司位于南澳大利亚州韦克菲尔德港的生产基地于去年12月正式投产。未来几年，该公司计划增加本地生产的零部件数量，逐步实现真正的本土化生产，而不再仅仅是组装进口零部件。

“澳大利亚现在是美国以外唯一一个制造GMLRS导弹的国家，这为澳大利亚工业进入全球供应链提供了机会，”国防工业部长帕特·康罗伊说。

他将此次首次试射描述为“澳大利亚自主制导武器能力的一个重要里程碑，展现了我们在加强国家自力更生和打造澳大利亚制造的国防未来方面取得的切实进展”。

GMLRS 是澳大利亚制导武器和爆炸物 (GWEO) 企业的代表作，该企业旨在使澳大利亚拥有各种武器的自主生产能力。

澳大利亚和美国政府于2024年3月签署的一项双边协议设想每年生产多达4000枚GMLRS火箭，是澳大利亚自身需求的十倍。因此，出口一直是洛克希德·马丁公司战略考量的一部分。

洛克希德·马丁澳大利亚公司导弹与火控部门总监兼总经理詹姆斯·海丁表示：“我们不仅关注澳大利亚的消费，还关注全球供应链。”

Heading表示，GMLRS的产量将在2026年大幅提升，届时洛克希德·马丁澳大利亚公司将从风险降低活动过渡到第一阶段生产。

他告诉《防务新闻》，他的公司正在研究将澳大利亚的生产直接整合到位于美国阿肯色州卡姆登的工厂中的流程、程序和软件，以便与美国的制造周期保持同步。

然而，GMLRS 是 HIMARS 可用的射程最短的火箭，它很难达到堪培拉引以为傲的远程“有效投射”目标的标准。

洛克希德·马丁澳大利亚公司告诉《防务新闻》，第一个合乎逻辑的改进方案是制造射程为 93 英里的增程型导弹。

澳大利亚国防部在一份声明中表示：“重要的是，澳大利亚制造的GMLRS导弹将为未来远程火力弹药（例如精确打击导弹（PrSM）和高超音速武器）的本地化生产提供途径。”

澳大利亚和美国于2025年6月签署了一份关于合作生产PrSM的谅解备忘录，内容涵盖维护和后续开发。该协议为澳大利亚组装PrSM提供了多种选择。

堪培拉将在十年内投资约 2.24 亿美元，成为 PrSM 的全面合作伙伴，并在未来五年内投资 1.06 亿美元，用于购买首批导弹。

戈登·阿瑟是《防务新闻》的亚洲特派记者。在香港工作20年后，他现居新西兰。他曾到访亚太地区约20个国家，参加过军事演习和防务展览。